Live and Let Die
by labelbasher
Summary: [HouseCameron] Begins after S3 finale. They all knew that House's lifestyle would catch up with him someday, but none of them were expecting this. Now that he's off the Vicodin and beginning to detox, will he let anyone in to help or try do it on his own?
1. Downward Spiral

Live and Let Die

By Rhi

Chapter One – Downward Spiral

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Well, finally I'm happy enough with this story and where I'm going with it to start posting it. There's going to be some medical stuff in this fic, which I have researched in as much depth as I have access to through the internet and my anatomy and physiology text books, but may still be incorrect or in the wrong context. If any medical mistakes are glaringly obvious, please let me know and I will fix them…after all I'm studying to be a physiotherapist, not a doctor!

That's it from me, I hope you guys enjoy my story.

---

He now knew what it was like to experience an F5-rated tornado ripping through a town, leaving nothing in its wake but a trail of devastation and rubble. Except this tornado hadn't torn through his town, it had ripped apart his life.

He wouldn't admit it to anyone, he even went so far as to claim that he thought it was a good change, but the recent occurrences had taken Dr. Gregory House by surprise, and he was left feeling rather unsure about it all. And one of the things that irked House the most was feeling unsure about something.

The words Cameron had said to him as she left echoed in his mind. _I expect you to do what you always do. I expect you to make a joke and go on. I expect you to be just fine. _He could still feel the ghost of her touch on his left arm. _I'll miss you._

She had got most of it right. He would do what he always did. He would make it all into a big joke and go on as if nothing happened. But he would _pretend_ to be fine. He would continue to pretend until he managed to convince himself that he actually _was_ fine.

House strummed the guitar absent-mindedly, fingers forming an easy, flowing melody. He closed his eyes and let the music wash over him. He felt himself relaxing and the tension slowly began to leave his body. Music had always had that effect on him.

Truthfully, he didn't know why he bought the guitar, he suspected that somehow in a Vicodin and scotch-induced haze he felt like proving Wilson wrong and prove that he wasn't afraid of change. But he wasn't just afraid of change; he detested it and avoided it as much as possible.

The phone rang and House ignored it, plucking at the guitar strings harder in an effort to drown out the harsh ringing of the phone. The answer phone clicked on and his brief message played.

"If I wanted to talk to you, I would have answered the damn phone." He had recorded that message as soon as he had got home. He knew that the only person likely to be calling was Wilson, and he really didn't feel like talking to him right now.

"House, I know you're there." Wilson's voice filled the room. "Come on, pick up…" he paused, waiting to see if House would pick up. "Okay, fine, don't pick up, I just wanted to make sure you're okay. I heard about Cameron quitting. Come on House, just pick up the phone. I hate talking to your machine." Wilson paused again. "You know, you've really screwed up this time, House. You'd better start thinking of how you're going to fix this." Another pause, followed by a sigh. "I'll talk to you later."

A quiet click signalled that the oncologist had hung up and an ominous silence filled the room. It was only then that House realised that at some stage during the message he had stopped playing the guitar and he gave it a loud strum to break the silence in the room before leaning it carefully up against the wall. He looked over to the table where a glass of scotch and his bottle of Vicodin sat waiting for him. He picked up the bottle of pills and shook it, the rattling sound having a similar effect on him as Pavlov's bell had on his dogs.

Deciding that tonight he just wanted to quiet his always-busy mind, and forget his miserable existence, House shook out two of the white pills - as opposed to his usual single pill dose - something he knew he shouldn't really be doing, and downed them both with a gulp of scotch, knowing full well that he shouldn't be taking the medicine with alcohol. But that had never stopped him in the past, so why should it stop him now?

House downed the rest of the scotch, limped over to the couch and lay down on it, resting his head on the padded armrest. He thumbed on the TV and flicked through the channels until he found something remotely interesting to watch, then relaxed into the comfortable couch and waited for sleep to take him.

---

Cameron tiptoed around Chase's dark apartment, collecting various items of clothing that had been hastily discarded on the way to the bedroom merely an hour ago. She traced the trail of clothes back to the lounge, putting each piece on as she retrieved it, trying to be as quiet as possible so she didn't wake Chase, who was sleeping soundly in the bedroom.

After the events of the day, Cameron had felt the craving for mindless sex to numb her body and her emotions. She had Chase had finished off the most part of a 12 pack of beer between them and then fallen into bed with each other for some drunken sex that wasn't designed for intimacy, only the convenience of mutual pleasuring and making you forget about your crappy life for just a few minutes.

Chase had fallen asleep minutes after, but Cameron had laid awake thinking, even though that's the last thing she had wanted to do. Her mind just wouldn't let her rest. The overwhelming feelings of guilt, despair and hopelessness sobered her up much quicker than she would have liked and she felt like all of a sudden the room was closing in on her. In his slumber, Chase had slung an arm across her stomach and it had suddenly felt like it weighed a tonne, pinning her down. That was when she decided that she really didn't want to be there, and quietly slid out of the bed.

After she had dressed and called a taxi in a hushed tone – the operator was obviously used to whispered calls in the middle of the night and didn't say anything about the clandestine nature of the call – Cameron scribbled a quick note to Chase and waited outside in the chilled night air for the taxi. She just wanted to get home to her own apartment, where she could be by herself and decide what she was going to do next.

---

Monday arrived and House limped into Princeton Plainsboro Hospital at nine forty-five. Much of his weekend was spent forgotten in a Vicodin and scotch-induced stupor, alternating watching TV with playing guitar or piano and avoiding phone calls from Wilson, who had eventually given up on trying to reach him.

House had almost reached the open metal doors which represented the safety of the elevator and the successful avoidance of Cuddy, when he heard the said dean of medicine's voice calling his name from across the foyer.

House cringed inwardly and pulled a cheeky 'oops' face for the benefit of those in the elevator. "I've been naughty." He explained. "She wants to give me a good spanking." He winked and slapped his good leg for effect before turning and limping towards Cuddy, who did not look happy.

"My office. Now." She said, pointing towards her office and waiting for him to enter before following him in.

Once in the office, Cuddy took a seat in her chair behind her desk, while House remained standing in front of the desk in attempt to retain a sense of authority, but Cuddy glared at him and told him to sit, the tone of her voice indicating that there was no room for compromise.

Surprisingly, House pulled up a chair without argument and sat staring expectantly at Cuddy, who sighed and ran a hand through her hair.

"House, I don't know where to begin." She said, exasperation clearly present in her voice and demeanour. "You've screwed up badly this time. I don't even know where to begin fixing it. You're lucky Cameron still has her two weeks notice to work, so that should give you enough time to hire three new doctors."

House began to say something, but Cuddy held up her hand. "Don't interrupt. I know you hate interviewing, but if you don't hire someone, I will. Get Wilson and Cameron to help you if you want to. Now go, and remember that you have clinic duty this afternoon. If I don't see you there by twelve-thirty I will hunt you down personally."

House got up without a word and walked towards the door and Cuddy couldn't help thinking how un-House-like it was to walk away without saying a word, when he opened the door and said in a loud voice, "No, I will not let you touch me there, no matter how much of a raise you want to give me!" before walking once again in the direction of the elevators, smirking slightly because he had got in the last word.

Cuddy just sighed again and rested her head in her hands. She had said numerous times that he was her best doctor, and she would do, and had done, almost anything to keep him working there, but sometimes she wondered why she did it. Sometimes she wondered if he was just a lost cause and all she was doing was getting caught up in his trail of devastation and it was only a matter of time before he spiralled down out of control, bringing down those around him into his life of misery.

---

House managed to reach the elevators without any more hold ups and rode up to the floor where the Diagnostics Department was. He limped down the familiar hallway to the glass-walled office. He wasn't surprised to see Cameron sitting there, working on a pile of charts, as she still had her two weeks notice to work. He made a mental note to hire someone with good administration skills so that he wouldn't have to take up doing paperwork again.

Cameron looked up as House pushed through the door and made his way over to the coffee machine and poured himself a cup of coffee in his favourite red mug. He took a sip of the brew and grimaced.

"I hope whatever flunkies I hire can make better coffee than this." He snarked before pushing through the glass door to his office, leaving a very confused Dr. Cameron behind.

Frowning, Cameron took a sip of her own coffee and concluded that it tasted just fine. And House had never complained before, in fact he usually seemed to like her coffee, although he hadn't said it in so many words. This led Cameron to one conclusion. Deciding to bite the bullet, she got up and entered House's office, trying to put on a confident demeanour that she didn't really feel.

House was sitting in his chair, his Chuck Taylor-clad feet propped up on the corner of his desk as he searched through the songlist on his iPod. He looked up as Cameron walked in and was about to make a sarcastic comment about her apologising for her bad coffee when she spoke.

"Are you mad at me?" she asked straight up, before she lost her nerve.

House leaned back in his chair and eyed the younger doctor. "Why would I be mad at you, Dr. Cameron?" he asked, his voice laced with sarcasm.

Cameron paused, gauging the tension in the room before replying. "I'm leaving because I feel that I've learned all I can from this job."

One side of House's mouth quirked up into a wry half smile. "Everybody lies, Dr. Cameron. Even someone so seemingly innocent as yourself."

Cameron hesitated a second before taking a deep breath and prepared to tell him what she really felt. "You're right, I did lie. I'm leaving because I don't think I want to work with you anymore. You've changed, House, and I don't think I like this new person you've become. Ever since the saga with Tritter, you've thought that you've had everyone wrapped around your little finger. More than what you used to anyway. There was the rehab, and then the whole cancer thing! And that's just the beginning. Just because you've got friends who would do anything for you, doesn't mean that you have to abuse them and their trust. I used to respect you, House…" Cameron paused, her eyes meeting House's mesmerising blue ones for what seemed like an eternity. "But now I'm not so sure if I do." She whispered, holding his gaze for a moment longer before turning and walking back into the conference room, leaving both doctors stunned, hardly believing that she had just said all that.

---

Reviews are a writer's best tool. If you liked it (or even if you didn't like it) I'd love to know what you thought.

Next chapter will be up within a week. I would love to post more often than that, but unfortunately my uni timetable and workload doesn't allow for much writing time.

Rhi


	2. Exercising the Sarcasm Muscle

Live and Let Die

By Rhi

Chapter Two – Exercising the Sarcasm Muscle

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Hey guys. I was pretty stoked with how the first chapter did, so I decided to post this one early. 8 reviews and 15 alerts (hmmm…although somehow it seems to me that it should be the other way around!), but I'm pretty happy with that, so for your reading enjoyment, here's chapter two.

This chapter's a bit of a transition chapter, so I tried my hand at a bit of House humour to make up for it. The action all begins in the next chapter.

Enjoy! )

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The morning passed slowly, House remained holed up in his office, his music turned up as loud as he could stand it, and Cameron stayed in the conference room, finishing off paperwork and other things that could be done now that they didn't have a patient to worry about. The only time House had emerged from his office and spoken to her was when he had instructed her to advertise the positions for the three new fellows, which she promptly did.

At twelve, Wilson entered House's office with two brown bags and two takeaway cups of coffee from the cafeteria. He took in the darkened room and its grumpy occupant and dropped the brown bag containing House's favourite Ruben sandwich and fries on the desk in front of said grumpy occupant. He placed one of the cups of coffee next to the bag and took a seat in the chair on the other side of the desk, taking his own sandwich out of the other paper bag.

"So what are you going to do about your staffing problem?" Wilson said, before taking a bite of his BLT sandwich.

"Haven't you ever heard of small talk?" House snarked. "You know the stuff you generally start a conversation with."

"I have." Wilson said. "I'm surprised you have, though."

"You'd be surprised what I know." House said. "For instance, did you know that the new nurse in Paediatrics is having an affair with Dr. Stone in Neurology?"

"Oh really?" Wilson said, interested in the tidbit of gossip, before remembering what he had actually come here to talk about. "That's almost as interesting as your attempt to change the subject."

House didn't answer, taking a large bite of his sandwich instead.

"Come on, House. You ignored my phone calls all weekend."

"What do you want me to say?" House said. "That I'm all depressed because all my staff have left and I need a hug? There's not much I can do, except move on. Change can be good sometimes. I was getting bored with them anyway. They were becoming much too predictable."

Wilson frowned. "Yes, I agree that change can be good, but I also know that you avoid change as much as possible."

"Not true." House interrupted. "I bought a new guitar."

Wilson sighed. "That's not what I meant, House. You're avoiding the real problem."

"And you're trying to create a problem out of nothing." House snarked. "It's fine. I'll hire a new staff, get to have fun breaking them in, mock them relentlessly and go on as usual. Everything will be fine."

"Yeah, except for the fine part." Wilson muttered.

House gave Wilson a look which clearly indicated that the subject was closed.

"Fine then, everything will be fine." Wilson agreed, holding up his hands in defeat. He looked at his watch, seeing that it was a few minutes off twelve-thirty. "And you're due for clinic duty any minute now."

House narrowed his eyes at his friend. "So now Cuddy's got you doing her dirty work for her. Some friend you are."

"Yeah, it's not like I care about your wellbeing or any of that silly friend stuff." Wilson muttered, finishing off the last of his coffee and throwing his rubbish in the bin. "Come on, you don't want to be late."

"No, we wouldn't want that now, would we?" House snarked, and tossed his own rubbish in the bin.

---

House followed Wilson down to the clinic, grumbling about his friend-turned-Cuddy's-minion dragging him down to the depths of hell to deal with boring people with boring, common illnesses.

House walked over to the reception desk, accompanied by Wilson. "Dr House is in the house." He announced loudly. "And it is twelve-thirty-one"

The nurse noted that down and shoved a file into House's hands. "Exam room two. Your patient is already waiting."

House took the file and stalked off to exam room two, where a teenager sat on the bed, twirling a lock of her platinum blonde hair around her finger. She snapped her gum loudly and smiled at House as he walked in. He shut the door and sat on the stool, opening the file.

"So…" House began before pausing and checking the patient's name. "Crystal. What's the problem?"

"Well, I like broke up with my boyfriend like a month ago, and then the other day, I like got asked out by this like really hot guy, who is so wonderful, and he's like really rich, and like drives a really hot car and stuff."

House interrupted the teenager before she could go on extolling the virtues of her newest boyfriend. "What do you need?"

"Well, you see, I'm like already taking the Pill, but I'm like worried that it might not be enough. I'm only on the mini pill, and I like don't think it will be enough and it might not work anymore, because he's like…well, you know…really big and all, and I like think I would need a bigger and stronger pill, because I like don't want to get pregnant and stuff."

House smirked at the girl's naivety. "Well, we wouldn't want that happening." He said, scribbling out a prescription for a different birth control pill, and a large supply of condoms. "God only knows what would happen if you were to procreate."

The insult obviously went straight over the girl's head, as she accepted the prescription and grinned widely at House. "Thank you _so_ much, doctor. I think you're like so fantastic and stuff."

The girl left and House went back to the reception desk and swapped the file for a new one.

"Damien Wright." House called the next patient and ushered a young boy and his mother into exam room two.

"What's the problem?"

"Well, Damien has an ear infection and the medicine the doctor prescribed for him isn't working." The mother explained, showing House the medicine bottle that she had brought with her.

"How long has he had it?"

"It's been two weeks now, and a week since the doctor prescribed the medicine, but the infection isn't going away."

"How often are you giving the medicine?"

"5mL three times a day, just like the instructions say. Although I must say that it is quite difficult getting the medicine to stay in his ear, it just tends to leak out all over the place." The mother explained.

Amused, House shook his head disbelievingly, scribbling out a prescription for the same antibiotics. "Here's some more medicine. Try putting it in his mouth this time, you'll probably get better results."

Again, House's insult went over the intended recipient's head, and the mother accepted the prescription and ushered her son out of the exam room, thanking House as she went.

House's next patient, Carl Lambert, was already in exam room three when House got there, standing by the bed, bent over in obvious pain.

"Let me guess, you're in pain?" House said, efficiently stating the obvious.

The young man just gave House a scowl. "It started after I went to the toilet this morning. It hurts so much I can't even sit down or stand up straight."

House fished his bottle of Vicodin out of his pocket and dry swallowed one, not looking forward to what he would have to do next. He tipped out a second pill and generously gave it to Carl, who dry swallowed it with a bit more difficulty.

"Kneel on the bed on your hands and knees and pull down your pants." House instructed as he grabbed two gloves from the dispenser on the wall, a look of distaste on his face.

Once Carl had got into position, House inspected the painful area, expecting to find a haemorrhoid or something along those lines, and was surprised to find a 2cm long object stuck in his sphincter. He pulled it out and inspected it curiously.

"What did you eat last night?" House asked.

"Chinese food. Why?" Carl answered.

"Did you have the duck by any chance?" House said, questioning the origin of the short bone he was holding in his hand.

Carl looked around at House, a frown of confusion on his face. "Yeah, I did. How can you tell that just from looking at my butt?"

House showed Carl the bone before dropping it into a specimen jar. "Souvenir." He said, handing the young man the jar before walking from the room.

House walked back to the reception desk. "Dr House is leaving the building. Time is two-thirty." He stated to the nurse currently on duty.

"Actually, Dr House, it's only two o'clock." The nurse replied.

"Your clock must be slow." House said as he turned and walked in the direction of the lifts, intending to go back to his office and collect his things and leave early to spend the afternoon at home, and catch up on his favourite TV shows.

---

I hope you guys enjoyed that. Let me know what you thought!

-Rhi


	3. Harsh Reality

Live and Let Die

By Rhi

Chapter Three – Harsh Reality

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Hey guys. I hope you're all looking forward to this chapter, as this is where it all begins!

That's all I have to say, except for…enjoy!

---

It was eleven-thirty the next day and Cameron had finished sorting House's mail and email, made a second pot of coffee after the first one had gone cold, got the charting up to date, tidied the drawers of the desk that she used to share with Chase and Foreman, and played three games of solitaire and two of freecell and House still hadn't arrived. She wasn't at the point of worrying yet – she knew too well that House worked to his own schedule, especially when they didn't have a patient, but that didn't stop her from wondering where he was.

Cameron had just begun a new game of freecell when Wilson pushed through the door of the conference room and quickly glanced around the interior.

"You haven't seen House around, have you?" Wilson asked.

Cameron shook her head. "No, not yet. I've been up here since eight and I haven't seen him so far. I assumed that he was avoiding Cuddy and the interviews he's supposed to be doing this afternoon."

Wilson frowned at the news, a slight hint of worry playing across his features.

"Is there something wrong?" Cameron asked, the hint of worry that she picked up from the oncologist now reflected in her voice.

"He was supposed to be doing clinic duty this morning, but he never showed, which isn't too unusual I guess. But for him not to turn up to lunch, especially when I told him that I'm buying, is not normal." Wilson explained.

"Have you paged him?"

"Yes, and I've tried his cell phone and his home phone, but I still can't get a hold of him. I even went so far as to check in the clinic, but that was just a waste of time." Wilson paused. "I'm going to go to his place and see if he's there."

Cameron stood up abruptly, picking up her jacket and bag in one swift move. "I'm coming with you." She said, following Wilson out the door and towards the parking lot.

The ride to House's place only took fifteen minutes, as traffic was light at this time of day, and most of it was spent in a tense silence, both doctors wondering just what they would find at House's place.

---

House had immediately known that something was wrong when he woke up at three forty-two that morning with a sudden burst of nausea that had him leaping out of bed and limp-hopping straight for the bathroom, where he became quite intimate with the toilet bowl for the next thirty minutes. In between rounds of retching, he went through a differential diagnosis with himself in his head. He knew it couldn't be food poisoning, as he hadn't eaten anything recently that could have been spoiled. He assumed that he had just picked up a stomach bug from someone at the hospital.

His stomach finally settled down enough for House to get up off the bathroom floor, his leg protesting wildly at the awkward movements. He leaned over to flush the toilet and when he stood up he caught a glance of himself in the mirror. He flicked the light on and leaned closer to inspect the reflection more closely to see if what he had seen was real or just a figment of his imagination.

"Oh crap."

---

Eight hours later and House was still trying to fall asleep. In those eight hours, he had mostly dozed, with three trips to the bathroom thrown in for good measure. He had soon given up on running from the bedroom to the bathroom and had instead left a bucket by the side of his bed. His leg alternated its usual deep aching with sending piercing bolts of pain through his body if he so much as moved it wrong. He had taken a Vicodin, but it didn't do much good, as it had come back up almost as soon as he had swallowed it.

House could feel himself on the verge of falling into a deep slumber when three sharp raps sounded at the door, causing his brain to instantly become alert, foiling his chance at actually getting some much-needed sleep. House refused to get up, hoping that if he ignored the knock, the person would go away.

Three knocks sounded again, then paused, followed by another three knocks, this time accompanied with a shout of his name. His tired mind recognised the voice and identified it as that belonging to Wilson.

_Use your damn key. _House thought, but didn't bother to vocalise it.

---

Wilson tried one last knock and another shout for good measure before pulling his keyring out of his pocket and selecting a tarnished key. He inserted the key in the lock and twisted it, tumbling the bolt back before twisting the doorknob and pushing the door open.

Wilson entered the apartment first, followed closely by Cameron. "House?" he called, wandering through the lounge in the direction of the hallway which led to his bedroom.

Cameron followed Wilson rather reluctantly, lingering in the lounge for a bit, not sure whether she should follow Wilson up the hallway to where House's bedroom was. She felt quite out of place in House's apartment, almost as if she were intruding in her boss's sacred space.

"Cameron!" Wilson's urgent shout came from somewhere down the hallway.

Cameron forgot all about feeling hesitant, and quickly walked down the hallway in the direction that Wilson's shout had come from, her mind conjuring up images of what could possibly be wrong.

Cameron found House's bedroom easily enough, and was taken aback by the smell of sweat and vomit that hung thickly in the room. Wilson was kneeling by House's bed, trying to get him to drink a glass of water. But the thing that startled Cameron the most was House looked up at her. Normally a striking blue colour, his eyes had dulled to a watery grey, but that wasn't the worst thing. The white of his eyes had a definite yellow tinge to them.

"Jaundice." Cameron said, stating the obvious, her voice almost a whisper.

Wilson looked up at Cameron and tipped the bucket by House's bed in her direction enough for her to see the contents. "And bloody vomit." He said.

"We have to get you to the hospital." Cameron said, both her and Wilson stepping forward to help House get out of the bed, but House just pushed them away.

"I'm a big boy now, I'm sure I can get out of bed by myself." He snarked, obviously not pleased with the situation.

House proceeded to get out of the bed slowly, the fatigue from the dehydration making his movements even more awkward than usual. His thigh sent shooting pain up and down his leg as he put weight on it.

"Well are you going to go out while I get dressed, or did you want to stay for the show?" House asked, giving the other two doctors a crooked half smirk.

"We'll wait in the lounge." Wilson said, turning and following Cameron out of the room. "Call if you need anything."

"How could he let it get that bad?" Cameron said in a low voice once they reached the lounge.

Wilson went into the kitchen and began rummaging around in the cupboards. "Well, he's House." Wilson said as if that explained everything. He pulled out a salad bowl and placed it on the bench.

"But he would have recognised the signs days ago. He's a doctor for goodness sake."

"The Vicodin may have masked some of the symptoms. But if there's one thing House is good at, it's denial." Wilson said wryly, grabbing a bottle of water from the fridge.

"'De Nile' isn't just a river in Egypt, you know." House said, overhearing the last sentence of their short conversation as he struggled to limp into the room. He had changed from his pyjama bottoms and an old t-shirt into raggedy jeans and an equally old classic rock t-shirt.

"Well, what are you waiting for? I could be dying here, remember." House said.

"Right, well come on then." Wilson said, ushering House and Cameron out the door, handing House the bottle of water and the salad bowl as he went through. "I just got my car cleaned. If you throw up on it, I won't forgive you."

---

So I hope you enjoyed that. Let me know what you thought. I love reading what you guys think and your comments are all much appreciated.

-Rhi )


	4. Life or Death Decisions

Live and Let Die

By Rhi

Chapter Four – Life or Death Decisions

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Thanks heaps guys for all the wonderful feedback. Most of you guessed right: it is House's liver. I figured it was only a matter of time before the Vicodin and alcohol screwed it up. But don't despair, I'm _not_ into character death stories! I just like to make things a little bumpy for my favourite characters along the way…

And there's a bit of medical stuff in this chapter. I did research it quite a bit, and hopefully it is somewhat accurate, but if it's not, please bear with me and consider it creative license!

Enjoy!

---

Cuddy was doing paperwork in her office when she saw Cameron and Wilson enter the foyer, one on either side of House as he tried to convince them that he didn't need their help. She dropped the pen and file that she was holding and rushed out of her office, startled to see House looking so bad.

"What's going on?" she asked, her face contorted with worry.

"We found him like this at his place. He's jaundiced and was vomiting up blood." Wilson explained. "It looks like the beginnings of liver failure to me."

"Oh, House." Cuddy said sympathetically, placing a hand on his arm. "I'll page Dr. Gatley and get him to check you out."

An hour and much protestation later, House found himself admitted to Princeton Plainsboro hospital, been forced into a hospital gown and was now lying in a bed in the gastro ward with at least two doctors constantly hovering around the bed, waiting for his blood and liver function test results to come back.

The Gastroenterologist, Dr. Gatley, entered the room holding the lab results, followed closely by Cuddy. Wilson and Cameron were already in the room, and the four doctors gathered closely around House's bed to hear the results.

"Your liver panel showed elevated levels of ALT, GGT, ammonia and direct bilirubin, your prothrombin time was marginally increased and you're in the beginning stages of liver failure. You've probably got a build up of scar tissue in your liver, which is preventing it from functioning normally. We'll have to do a biopsy to determine the extent of the damage and to confirm the diagnosis." Dr. Gatley flipped through House's medical charts. "It says here that you've been on Vicodin for the past seven years. Now I suppose I don't need to tell you that both acetaminophen and hydrocodone can have negative repercussions on liver function in long term use."

House stared out the window, refusing to make eye contact and acknowledge what Dr. Gatley was saying. Wilson was right when he said that he was good at denial. It was an efficient defence mechanism, secondary only to snark and sarcasm, when dealing with stuff he wasn't happy with.

"So if you don't want to kill yourself in the next few weeks, I suggest you begin a detox program as soon as possible. You're scheduled for a liver biopsy at two-thirty." Dr. Gatley said, and then left the room, leaving House with Cameron, Wilson and Cuddy.

The latter three doctors all looked worriedly at each other, none of them sure that House was willing to give up Vicodin, even though his life now depended on it.

"So what are you going to do?" Cuddy asked, breaking the silence that he fallen over the room.

House looked as if he were actually weighing up the options. He didn't really want to kill himself from liver failure, but then again he didn't want to have to deal with the pain of his leg and the detox.

"Come on, House, it's an easy decision." Wilson said, pushing for an answer.

"Sure, easy decision for you maybe, you're not the one who's going to be in excruciating pain." House shot back.

"Why don't you try checking into rehab again?" Cuddy suggested.

"Not a good idea." Wilson cut in. "Last time he bribed one of the nurses to continue giving him Vicodin."

House was rewarded with shocked and disappointed looks from Cuddy and Cameron. "What?" he said, shrugging his shoulders. "I was just trying to prove a point to Tritter, I wasn't actually going to give up the Vicodin."

"Why don't you let us help you this time?" Cameron said, breaking the brief shocked silence that had ensued after House's last statement. "I could come and keep you company during the day, it's not like Diagnostics is going to have any patients in the meantime."

"You'd like that, wouldn't you?" House snarked. "It would fulfil all your girlish fantasies, taking care of your older, devilishly handsome boss while he detoxes. I was right, this kind of thing really does turn you on."

"Yes, because my life won't feel complete until I've nursed you through vomiting, pain, cold sweats and all the other myriad of symptoms that comes with detoxification." Cameron shot back wryly.

"She's got a point." Wilson said. "And I could come and sleep on your couch at night. Then you won't have to be alone. You know detoxification is always more successful if you accept help from those around you, rather than trying to do it on your own."

"Whose side are you on? You're supposed to be my friend and stand up for me." House complained.

"It doesn't sound like such a bad idea, House." Cuddy backed up the other two doctors.

"It's a conspiracy." House said, throwing his hands in the air in frustration.

"Don't be so paranoid." Cuddy shot back.

"It's not paranoia if they really are out to get you." House snarked.

"House, we're not out to get you, we want you to get better. I'll give Dr Cameron the time off to help you detox, and I'm going to temporarily shut down the Diagnostics department until you get better. You can worry about hiring new fellows when you've recovered." Cuddy said. She opened her mouth to say something else, but was interrupted by her pager. She checked the message, which was urgent. "Damn, I've got to go. I'll organise everything from this end, you just focus on getting better."

Cuddy turned and strode quickly out of the room and down the hall, the sound of her heels clicking on the vinyl floor faded as she got further away, leaving the room in silence.

"Well, House, we're willing to help you if you're willing to make the effort." Wilson said.

"I don't really have much choice, do I?" House grumbled. "Now I get to be stuck in my apartment with you two and no Vicodin, I can't think of anything more exciting."

---

Cameron dropped her bags as soon as she had entered her apartment at 8pm that night. She flopped down onto the nearest chair and sighed. The day had been emotionally draining, worrying about House. His liver biopsy results showed that he did have cirrhosis, a build up of scar tissue in his liver, which prevented it from functioning properly. His liver wasn't damaged beyond repair however, so if he went through with the detox and continued living a healthier lifestyle after that, he shouldn't need a liver transplant and he would have a relatively normal life expectancy.

Cameron cringed as she thought of her offer to help him detox. She did want him to get better of course, but she knew she was putting herself directly in the firing line by wanting to help him. He was bad enough to deal with normally and that was when he was taking the Vicodin, which she was certain he used to numb his emotions as well, so he wouldn't have to feel anything.

At work she only had to see him for part of the day, but Cameron knew that while detoxing, House's behaviour and attitude would get exponentially worse, and she wasn't entirely sure if she could take it. She wasn't weak by any means, and the last three years working for House had proved that she could handle a lot emotionally, but being stuck in a small apartment with a detoxing House would definitely push Cameron's emotional limits.

Not liking that train of thought, Cameron decided that she would be strong and pretend like nothing he said bothered her. House needed her help right now and even if he still didn't consider her someone he liked, she considered him someone that she cared about and she wanted him to get better, and she was going to help him whether he liked it or not.

With that resolution giving her a burst of confidence, Cameron made a quick meal, then headed off to bed for an early night in preparation for the next day, which she knew would be a long, physically, emotionally and mentally draining day.

---

Well there you go. The end of another chapter. Let me know what you thought!

-Rhi


	5. Day One

Live and Let Die

By Rhi

Chapter Five – Day One

---

Hey guys I'm so sorry it's taken so long to get this up, but I do have a good excuse. I have my (absurdly hard) end of year exams in less than two weeks, so I've been (understandably!) devoting all my time to study and I haven't had much time to write. So for the next few weeks updates will be sporadic, which I apologise in advance for. But I promise I will make it up to you as I'm on my summer holidays for 4 months afterwards! So I will be able to write whenever I want! I love uni holidays...lol.

One other thing: a reviewer mentioned that House should just switch to a painkiller that doesn't have acetaminophen in it. There are other preparations, such as Vicoprofen, that have hydrocodone (the opiate (and addictive) ingredient in Vicodin) in it without the acetaminophen, but for the purposes of my story, I'm pretending at this stage that those don't exist. I'm considering doing something like that later on in the story, but if I change that now, it would just kill my entire storyline and House would lose Cameron forever! And admit it, Vicoprofen just doesn't sound as catchy as Vicodin!

Okay, so that was a very long author's note...now you can go and read the story.

Enjoy!

---

At seven-thirty the next morning, Cameron arrived on House's door step and knocked three times on the door, which was opened soon after by Wilson, who was in the middle of knotting his tie. He ushered her inside.

"He's still in bed." Wilson said, giving Cameron a quick update on House's condition. "He's been up half the night vomiting and he's beginning to detox. I gave him a sleeping pill a couple of hours ago, so he should still be out of it for a bit longer. I picked up a script yesterday for clonidine, diazepam, metoclopramide and ibuprofen. He should be due for another dose when he wakes up."

Wilson slipped on his jacket. "Thanks for doing this. I know it won't seem like he appreciates it, but you know what he's like. Call me if you need anything, or if he's too much of a pain in the ass." Wilson picked up his overnight bag and keys. "See you later. Oh, and good luck, you'll probably need it."

Once Wilson had gone, the apartment fell completely silent. Cameron felt the same hesitancy and uncomfortableness about being in his apartment as she had before, but she immediately squashed those feelings.

A quick trip to House's bedroom revealed that he was still sleeping, although rather fitfully if the sheets tangled around his legs and torso were anything to go by. Having nothing else to do for the moment, Cameron decided to take a bit of a look-see around House's apartment to pass the time, and to satisfy her curiosity about her boss.

There were about half a dozen bookcases placed throughout the apartment, stacked with an eclectic mix of the expected medical text books and journals with a few non-fiction works and a huge selection of fiction, some from writers that she had never even heard of. There was also a bunch of old medical equipment inhabiting the top shelf of one of the bookcases. House's DVD collection was also quite expansive, she had come to realise that House never did things by halves, if he was going to do something; he was going to do it well. However, Cameron was surprised to discover that even though House joked about it often, there were no pornos in the DVD collection, unless he felt the need to hide them in his own apartment.

Unsurprisingly, the music collection was also very large and existed on a bookcase of its own near the stereo. Cameron looked through the old records and recognised a few classics that would undoubtedly be worth a fortune these days.

Cameron sat down at the piano bench and imagined House sitting there, running nimble fingers over the ivory. There was an empty glass sitting on a coaster on the top of the piano, surrounded by loose sheet music. A sniff of the dregs in the glass confirmed her suspicion that it was scotch, one of the things House was going to have to give up if he wanted to keep his liver.

Cameron took the empty glass back to the kitchen, and checked the contents of his cupboards and fridge. There wasn't a lot in there, and Cameron made a mental note to go shopping for some supplies as soon as possible. A loaf of bread, half a bottle of milk and a bunch of half empty takeaway cartons were not going to sustain anyone.

Another check on House revealed that he was still fast asleep, so Cameron turned on the TV to pass the time. She turned the volume down low and flicked through the channels, wondering why there was so little to watch even though there were so many channels to choose from. She finally settled on a documentary about strange medical mysteries, betting that some of the things she had seen would trump some of the cases shown on the program.

Halfway through the program, there was a case where a patient was going into surgery, and as they were preparing to insert his arterial line into his radial artery, they discovered that he had dark green blood. The doctor being interviewed described it as the same colour as avocado skin. The show was dragging out the lab testing procedures and the diagnosis when a voice suddenly spoke up from behind her.

"Sulfhaemoglobin." House said, predicting the cause of the green blood.

"Jeez, House," Cameron said, startled by his sudden presence as she had been engrossed in the television. "How do you manage to sneak up on people with a limp and a cane?"

House shrugged his shoulder nonchalantly. "Lots of practice. So I guess you're my babysitter for the day."

"Yeah, you're stuck with me whether you like it or not." Cameron said. "How are you feeling?"

House sat down ungracefully on the couch next to her, grimacing in pain as he used his hands to prop his bad leg up on the table. "Like I'm about to enter the worst part of detox."

House was already beginning to look bad, his eyes were bloodshot and he still had the slight yellow tinge to the whites of his eyes from the jaundice. He smelled of stale sweat and the sharp tang of vomit, caused from both the liver disease and detox.

Cameron reached over to the table and retrieved the glass of water she had placed there earlier. "Drink this then. You'll need to keep hydrated."

House accepted the glass and drank the water, eyeing Cameron as if he were trying to figure her out. "Why are you doing this?" he asked eventually. "It's not going to be fun. I'm not nice at the best of times, let alone when I'm detoxing, as I'm sure you're aware."

"You know, House, for someone who prides himself on being misanthropic, you sure have quite a few people who care a lot about you. You keep people at an arm's length with your sarcasm and acerbity, but there is something about you that makes people want to care about you, sometimes whether they like it or not."

"What about you?"

"Well I'm here, aren't I?" Cameron said gently, before getting up and heading into the kitchen with House's empty glass. "Do you want something to eat? I'm sure you know that there's not much in here, but I could toast you some bread if you're hungry."

"It'll probably just come straight up again." House said, grimacing at the thought. "Speaking of which-" House hastily got up from the couch and limped in the direction of the bathroom, using the walls and furniture in lieu of his cane.

Cameron hung back in the kitchen for a bit, knowing that House probably wouldn't appreciate her following him in. She waited until there was a break in the retching, then picked up the glass that she had refilled with water and headed in the direction of the bathroom.

When Cameron entered the bathroom, she saw House lying back on the cool tiles, one arm slung over his face, covering his eyes. Sweat was beaded across his forehead.

"Here." Cameron said, offering him the glass of water.

House grimaced in pain as he awkwardly sat up, trying to minimise the shooting pain his damaged thigh was sending up and down his leg. He accepted the glass of water and swirled the first sip around his mouth before swallowing, to get rid of the acrid taste of bile.

"Why don't you take a shower?" Cameron suggested. "It might help you to feel better."

House nodded and Cameron watched as he awkwardly got to his feet, trying to avoid aggravating his leg as much as possible. She wanted to help him, but knew he wouldn't accept her assistance.

"I'll get you something to change into." Cameron said, once House had managed to get to his feet. "Where can I find some clean clothes?"

"Track pants third drawer, t-shirts second." House directed.

Cameron retrieved the clothes from the specified drawers and handed them to House, instructing him to shout if he needed anything.

---

House turned the shower on to the hottest temperature he could stand and undressed while the steam fogged up the room.

Once the last item of clothing was discarded on the floor, House stepped into the shower and stood directly under the jets of water, letting the water run down his face and body, slowly relaxing tense muscles.

His leg throbbed mercilessly, his head felt like it was going to explode and his stomach churned. He ached all over and he was beginning to get the shakes he noticed, as he lifted a trembling hand up to his face to wipe the water off it.

This was the third time he had put his body through this kind of pain, and he was sure that this was the worst it had ever been. Probably because he knew that there was no going back to the Vicodin after this. The last two times he had been through detox, there had been a light at the end of the tunnel, and he could anticipate the physical and mental relief of swallowing a Vicodin pill after he had put his body through a bit of hell. But this time the metaphorical light represented a train bearing down on him, threatening excruciating pain.

A shaking hand grasped the bar of soap from the holder and a memory flashed through a pain-laden mind. A picture of a locked black box stashed on top of a bookcase.

Morphine.

Tritter hadn't found the box during his search of the apartment, and House didn't realise that he hadn't seen it on the seized items list until now. It was most likely exactly where he had left it, waiting until he needed it.

Oh how he needed it.

As if encouraging that thought, House's leg throbbed extra hard, shooting a bolt of pain up his leg.

Morphine isn't as hard on the liver as the acetaminophen in the Vicodin is, House reasoned with himself.

But should you really be substituting one addiction for another, House's sensible side reasoned back. You know you have an addictive personality. Why not get addicted to something better for you next time, like chocolate or caffeine?

"Great, now I'm arguing with myself in my head." House muttered to himself out loud as he finished washing the soap off himself.

Banishing all thoughts of morphine from his head for the meantime, House shut off the water and towelled himself dry before slipping on his clothes, slightly annoyed that it was more difficult and took longer than usual to get his track pants on, due to the amplified pain in his thigh.

He sighed, knowing that it was only going to get much, much worse before it even looked as if it would get better.

---

Hope you enjoyed that chapter. I'm not entirely sure if House still has that box with the morphine in it, but for the purposes of my story, it's still there. Just go with me on this one.

Please let me know what you thought. There is still more people that have added this to story alerts than who have reviewed, and I'm thinking the numbers should be the other way around! Keep me sane through my study and exams and send me a bit of feedback! You'll make my day!

-Rhi


	6. Dire Consequences

Live and Let Die

By Rhi

Chapter Six – Dire Consequences

---

Hey guys...I'm back! Sorry about the long wait for this chapter. I hope you all missed me...lol. Well, exams are all over and I'm on my 4 month summer holiday, so I'll have plenty of time to write, therefore I'll hopefully be able to update more often, but no promises as my calendar is filling up quite quickly!

Just want to say a quick thank you to everyone who's reviewed so far and even those who have added the story to their favourites. I promise there's heaps of good stuff to come! And I particularly like this chapter because I managed to write a bit of physiotherapy stuff into it...lol. I knew all that study would come in handy for something!

Anyway, without further ado, here's chapter six. Enjoy!

---

Cameron looked up from the television as House limped back into the room. She noted that he looked – and smelled – a whole lot better now that he had taken a shower.

He plopped himself unceremoniously back onto the couch where he had sat before, and used his hands to prop his leg up onto the coffee table.

Cameron handed House several of his pills and a glass of water, which he waved away in favour of dry swallowing the pills.

"Jeez, House, you have to stop doing that. You're going to choke on them one day." Cameron pointed out. "Besides, you need to drink the water."

House shot a glare at Cameron, but accepted the glass of water and drained it in one go, keeping his eyes fixed on Cameron's.

"Yeah, nice one, House. You'll make yourself sick again." Cameron said. She paused. "How's your leg?" she asked, slightly more tentatively.

"Painful." House replied simply, a half-hearted note of sarcasm in his voice.

"How bad?" Cameron asked, referring to the pain scale, where pain intensity was indicated on a scale of one to ten.

"Hovering at an eight, with occasional spikes of twelve." House said, staring blankly at the television.

Cameron felt an immediate bolt of sympathy, but squashed the feeling quickly, as she knew it would definitely not be appreciated by House.

"Would you like a massage?" she ventured.

That got House's attention away from the television, as he fixed Cameron with an incredulous look, making her feel the need to explain herself.

"The brain receives pressure signals much faster than pain signals. Massage has been clinically proven to help reduce pain intensity and release endorphins, which are the body's own natural opiates." Cameron explained.

"I know, I went to medical school too." House snarked.

"Well then you'll know that this is a good idea." Cameron said as she rose up from the couch. "Take off your pants." She instructed.

House raised an eyebrow as he stared at Cameron with a slightly amused look on his face. "And here's me thinking that you were doing this because of your twisted need for damaged people, and really all you wanted to do was to get me with my pants off."

"Just do it." Cameron said, putting her hands on her hips to emphasise the point.

House paused and looked down for a second, then raised his eyes to meet Cameron's. "It's not going to be pretty." He said after hesitating a moment longer.

Cameron's resolve softened and she let her hands slip off her hips. It really tugged at her heart to hear House say that about his leg, when so often he just passed it off as nothing, or used it as an excuse that let him get away with anything.

"I don't care what it looks like, House." Cameron said gently, maintaining eye contact as she knelt down on the ground in front him. "It's a part of you, and that's why I'm doing this – to help you."

House broke the eye contact and looked down towards his feet. He nodded briefly and began to shuffle slowly out of his pants, wincing as he twisted his leg in positions it didn't appreciate, the pain intensified by the detox process making what was usually a mildly annoying task into a painfully difficult one.

Cameron, deciding that it would be better if she didn't try to help, rose from the floor and made her way over to her bag and rummaged around in the bottom of it, deliberately taking longer than needed, until she found the massage wax that she had brought with her.

By the time she got back to the couch, House was lying sideways on the couch in his boxer shorts, his right leg by the edge of the couch in an easily accessible position.

"Comfortable?" Cameron asked.

House nodded and laid his head back on the padded armrest, watching Cameron's reactions to his leg as he waited for her to begin.

Cameron took in House's scarred thigh and the slightly scooped in area from where the muscle had been removed. It didn't look as bad as she was afraid it might, but looks didn't change the fact that it represented a significant loss for House.

Cameron scooped a bit of the wax out of the jar and applied it to House's leg, and began massaging with long, soothing effleurage strokes. After a while, she chanced a look up at House's face and was pleased to note that his eyes were closed and the tension seemed to have gone out of his face. She was glad that he was letting himself relax and enjoy this.

Cameron continued massaging, and had probably been at it for close to an hour when a hand rested on top of her hands, stilling their movement. She looked up to see House's brilliant blue eyes gazing down at her.

"You can stop now." He said, his voice quiet. "Thank you." He added, the word and tone honest.

Cameron nodded, however she felt reluctant to move. House's hand was still resting on top of hers, and he hadn't seemed too inclined to move it. So she stayed as she was.

"How are you feeling now?" Cameron asked.

"I've been worse." House said, concealing the compliment as he was prone to doing. "Where did you learn to do that?"

"My sister is a physiotherapist. She used to practice her massage techniques on me when she was learning, and I just picked up some of it." Cameron explained with a shrug. "I don't get to use it that often though."

After a brief moment of silence, House's thumb grazed softly over the back of Cameron's hand, almost of its own accord, which prompted them both to look down at their hands, Cameron's petite one covered by House's larger, more masculine one.

Green eyes looked up to meet blue eyes and Cameron felt her stomach do a quick somersault. The sudden tension between the two of them was like a tangible force charging the moment with prickly electricity.

"House…" Cameron found herself saying softly.

The force seemed to be pulling both of them slowly together, each uncertain, but unable to resist. House's other hand came up to rest on Cameron's forearm and was trailing its way up her arm as they moved closer and closer together, both trapped in the moment, which was approaching its peak.

But then the moment was shattered by the shrill ringing of the phone filling the apartment. Startled, House jerked his hands away from Cameron's and reached over to the table behind him to pick up the phone while Cameron quickly found her way from the floor to the nearest unoccupied couch as House answered the phone.

House listened for a bit, his side of the conversation punctuated with the occasional "Fine" or affirmative "Mm-hmm" noise.

Finally he offered the phone to Cameron. "For you." He said.

Cameron accepted the phone, having a fair idea of who it would be.

"Hello." She greeted.

"Hey, Cameron." Wilson returned the greeting. "How's he doing? I'm sure you heard that I didn't get much out of him. Not that I expected to." He said, a wry tone to his voice.

"As expected I guess." Cameron said, eyeing House, who stared right back, unashamedly listening in on the conversation.

"Any problems?"

"Only that there's no food in this place." Cameron said. "Honestly you would think that a grown man would learn to live off something other than takeaways. Anyway, I'm planning on fixing that soon. I'll go out and pick up some basics."

"Okay. Don't forget to call if you need anything." Wilson reiterated. "I'll probably be back there at 6-ish. My last rounds finish at five."

"Okay, see you then."

Cameron hung up the phone and handed it back to House. "I'm going to go shopping and get you some food. You know, the healthy stuff that doesn't come in a takeaway box. Do you want to come?"

House shook his head. "I'll stay here." He said, not really wanting to go out in public looking how he did right now. Sure he had been to the hospital when he was detoxing before, but at least no one gives you a second look when you look like crap in a hospital, in fact it's kind of expected that people are going to look like crap there.

Cameron nodded and collected her bag and keys from the table. "If you need anything, you've got my cell phone number." She said, suddenly feeling a tinge of worry that House might do something stupid, remembering the last times he was detoxing. He had broken his fingers, cut himself and then nearly overdosed on OxyContin. She felt reluctant to leave, but knew that she was probably over-reacting, the protective and caring side of her coming through. She tried to put her mind at ease by telling herself that surely House had learned from his previous experiences.

One would hope so anyway.

Not wanting to seem overprotective and give House more ammunition to mock her about, Cameron put a smile on her face, turned back to House and said "I won't be too long. See you soon."

---

House listened as Cameron's footsteps faded down the hallway and a moment later he heard the engine of her car catch and then that too disappeared off down the road.

The silence in the apartment now seemed deafening and he felt a sudden pang of emptiness before his leg started throbbing at full force again. The morning hadn't been so bad having Cameron around, in fact it had made the detoxing process somewhat more bearable. Having her around definitely wasn't as bad as what he thought it would be. Especially the massage bit, which House thought was particularly good. He wasn't going to tell her so, but he now referred to Cameron's hands as 'magic'. He was beginning to realise that there was more to his one remaining duckling that he had originally thought, and for some reason beyond his usual curiosity, he had a sudden desire to find out all about her.

But right now House had more pressing things to concern himself with. In the five minutes Cameron had now been gone, House's withdrawal symptoms had come back in full force. His leg pain had lessened a lot after Cameron's massage, but now it throbbed relentlessly, pain radiating out over his entire body. Sweat beaded across House's forehead and he raised a trembling hand to wipe it away with his sleeve.

Looking towards the top of the nearest bookshelf, House could see the corner of a black box barely visible atop of a stack of thick medical text books. The sight and the thought of what he was going to do next was enough to provide sufficient motivation for House to lever himself off the couch and limp heavily across the room to where the solution for his problems existed.

House hooked the end of his cane around a nearby stool and pulled it over to him. He stepped up on it with his good leg and reached up to the top of the book case, fumbling around until his hand grasped the small black box.

Securing his prize under his arm, House made his way back to the couch and sat down heavily, placing the box on the table in front of him. He opened the lid to reveal a half used vial of morphine, a couple of unused syringes and a length of rubber. House could almost swear that the light glinted off the metallic lid of the morphine as he picked it up out of the box to inspect. Having the morphine this close to him, he could almost feel the relief already.

House put the morphine down on the table and picked the length of rubber out of the box. He tied it around his left arm, using his teeth to pull one end to tighten it sufficiently around his biceps muscle just above his elbow. He pulled the protective cap off one of the syringes with his teeth and stuck the needle through the cap of the morphine, drawing out the clear liquid into the syringe. Placing the morphine back on the table, House flicked the needle a couple of times with his finger to get any air bubbles to rise to the top and squirted a bit of the liquid out.

Now he was ready. Ready for the pain to go away. Ready for whatever may come.

Sharp metal met soft skin.

---

Well, that was a particularly evil cliff-hanger, but I promise I'll have the next chapter up soon.

Let me know what you thought.

Rhi


	7. Aftermath

Live and Let Die

By Rhi

Chapter Seven – Aftermath

---

Hey guys, I'm so sorry about the late update after I said I would be able to update quicker! Especially after that cliffhanger I left you on. My excuse is that I've just got addicted to a new series of books, Lee Child's Jack Reacher series if anyone's interested in some fantastic books. They are so good and so addictive that I can't put them down to go to bed, let alone to write, hence the lack of updates! But I promise I'll be better from now on. And I just want to say a big thank you to everyone who's given me feedback on my story so far. You guys are awesome! On another great note, I just got my exam results back, and all my marks are really good and I'm really happy with them, so to celebrate, I thought I would post this extra-long chapter.

So that's enough from me, enjoy the chapter!

---

Cameron bagged a head of lettuce and placed it in the basket along with an assortment of other fruits and vegetables. Part of her self-appointed mission was to get House eating healthily, which would also help his liver function.

As she made her way through the supermarket, selecting various foodstuffs as she passed them in the aisles, she reflected on the day's events so far. She couldn't help but return time and time again to the events after the massage and wondered what would have happened if the phone hadn't rung. It was probably best that nothing did happen, as she would be crazy to try and start something with House while he was going through detox. That would only fuel his opinion that she only liked him because he was damaged. And while detoxing he shouldn't be making big decisions, as he wasn't necessarily operating in a normal state of mind, if his usual state of mind could even be called 'normal'.

The rest of the day seemed to have gone well, though. House didn't seem to resent her presence too much, and Cameron didn't feel as stressed out about the whole thing as she thought she might be. House could be quite a difficult patient, which Cameron understood. Being on the patient side of the doctor-patient relationship wasn't easy when you were used to being in charge and making all the decisions about someone else's health and someone else's body. It was a lot harder when other people were making decisions about your own body.

Reaching the checkouts, Cameron paid for the groceries and carted the several plastic bags out to her car and drove in the direction of House's apartment, the sense of foreboding she had felt previously coming back, weighing down heavily on her mind and tugging at her stomach nervously.

Cameron carried the plastic supermarket bags up to the door, knocked and waited. When House didn't answer, she knocked again. Frowning, and trying not to think the worst of what could be happening inside, Cameron felt over the top of the doorframe feeling around for the spare key that she knew House kept up there.

Inserting the key in the lock and opening the door, Cameron was startled to see House sitting on the couch, his head in his hands, with what she immediately recognised as a vial of morphine on the table in front of him.

Cameron dropped the bags on the floor and pushed the door close in one swift movement and quickly made her way across the lounge to where House was sitting on the couch. To her relief, she noticed that the morphine had not been used, as the prepared syringe was still lying on the table next to the small vial of morphine.

Cameron knelt down on the floor in front of House, who hadn't looked up at her since she had arrived. "House." She said softly. "What happened?"

"I couldn't do it." House said, so quietly Cameron almost didn't hear what he said.

Cameron looked over at the syringe and noted the amount and strength of the morphine. "That's a lot of morphine, House." She said, still in a soft voice.

"My body's used to opiates." House said, still not taking his head from his hands or looking at Cameron.

"A weaker form of opiate." Cameron corrected. "That's too much morphine. You're not thinking straight."

"I just wanted the pain to go away." House said, finally raising his head and looking at Cameron. He let his hands fall down to rest on his knees. "I just wanted it to stop. But I couldn't do it."

"Why not?" Cameron asked, out of curiosity.

House looked down again, speaking quietly. "I didn't want you to find me like that."

Cameron took one of House's hands in her own. "Like how, House? What were you planning on doing?"

"I wasn't going to off myself, if that's what you mean." House said, snark coming back into his tone.

Cameron felt an immediate sense of relief, and she could feel some of the tension leaving her body. She didn't think that House was suicidal, but he must be desperate if he was willing to go to lengths like this to make his pain go away. "The first three days are the worst." Cameron said, trying to be reassuring. "And you've almost made it through the first. Don't give up now. It's not going to be like this forever."

House was silent for a second. "Take it away." He said, motioning to the morphine.

Cameron nodded and picked up the vial of morphine and the syringe without a word. She went into the kitchen and depressed the plunger in the needle over the sink, squirting the powerful opiate down the drain, following it with the small amount of remaining liquid from the vial. She wrapped the syringe in a couple of pages from yesterday's newspaper and discarded it in the bin.

Cameron then retrieved a selection of House's prescribed meds from the bottles in the kitchen and carried them, along with a glass of water out to the lounge, where House was still sitting on the couch.

"Here, take these. They won't be as strong as the morphine, but they might take the edge off the pain." Cameron said, offering House the pills and the water, which he accepted and downed in one gulp.

Cameron settled on the opposite end of the couch, flicking the TV on. "General Hospital is on. You can explain to me what's going on."

---

It was nearly nine by the time Wilson finally arrived at House's apartment. At six-thirty, Cameron had made grilled chicken and salad for dinner, hoping that House might be able to keep them down as the flavours weren't very strong. Unfortunately his stomach proved to be a tad fussier than either of them had realised and he had spent the next hour in the bathroom groaning over the toilet.

The two of them had settled on opposite ends of the couch and were watching TV when they heard a key turning in the lock and Wilson walked in, apologising profusely to Cameron for his delayed arrival.

"There was an emergency with one of my patients, and we had to rush him off to surgery. I'm sorry I didn't even get a chance to call." Wilson explained.

"It's fine, I know what it's like." Cameron assured him. "There's some leftover dinner in the kitchen. It's only grilled chicken and salad, but you're welcome to have some if you're hungry."

Wilson nodded enthusiastically and went to the kitchen to help himself. "So how's he been?" he asked, ignoring the fact that House was still sitting in the lounge and could hear every word said.

Cameron looked at House, trying to catch his eye. House did his usual avoidance technique and refused to acknowledge her, staring blankly at the TV. They hadn't discussed the morphine incident, so she wasn't sure if she should mention it to Wilson or not. She was tending towards the 'not' side of the argument, as House was fully capable of telling Wilson himself, and was entitled to his privacy if he chose not to share that information.

"Fine." Cameron said smoothly, noting with interest the surprised look House had shot at her. He obviously hadn't expected her to lie. _Everybody lies_. "Dinner was a bit of a disaster, it didn't stay down for long, but everything else is going as expected."

Wilson acknowledged her answer with a "Mm-hmm", and didn't seem to notice the brief hesitation before Cameron's answer and came back into the lounge with a plate piled high with salad and grilled chicken, mouth filled with the aforementioned salad, and settled down on the other couch as they all watched TV in silence for a while.

After the program had finished, Wilson took himself off to have a shower, and House continued looking at the screen as if he was intently interested in the advertisement for a new women's raspberry-scented body lotion that was currently playing.

"Well, I guess I'll be leaving then." Cameron said at the same time House said "Why didn't you tell him."

Cameron didn't need prompting to know that House was referring to the morphine incident from earlier. She shrugged. "It's your business, I figured you should be the one to tell him."

House nodded curtly and flicked his eyes up to meet Cameron's. He wanted to show his appreciation, but he was someone who avoided emotion as much as possible, so as a result, he wasn't well-versed enough in thank-you speeches to be able to aptly convey what he wanted to say.

Cameron, however, was a top student in House Body Language 101, and understood what he was trying to say. "You're welcome." She said with a smile. "But I do think you should tell him." She held up a hand to cut off House's protest. "He's your best friend. I'm sure he's seen you in worse situations. He would want to know. Think about it. It could be good for your friendship, it's what normal friends do."

Cameron gave the advice in good faith, so was not completely expecting the snarking that was shot back at her. "Since when did you decide that you could tell me what to do in my friendships? You might be fulfilling your little girl fantasies by being here while I detox and puke my guts out, but that doesn't mean you can take over my life and start giving me advice on what to do." House said, but without enthusiasm, as if he were simply trying to deflect, and turned his head back towards the TV.

Cameron fought back the impulse to shoot an equally insulting barb back at the surly man sitting at the other end of the couch. She knew he was just frustrated with himself, and after years of ignoring and numbing his emotions with Vicodin, he was probably having a hard time dealing with things at the moment, especially combined with the effects of the detox. She sighed as she got up from the couch and went over to the table where her bag and coat were still sitting. She slipped on her coat as she observed House out of the corner of her eye. She wasn't quite sure what she was hoping for, but whatever it was, it didn't come, as he just continued to pretend to be interested by the advertisements that were still playing on the TV.

"I guess I'll see you tomorrow then." Cameron said and walked out the door, not waiting for the reply that she knew wasn't coming.

As soon as she had left, House's blue eyes flicked over to the door. He wanted to be relieved that she was gone, but he felt strangely...well, strange. He couldn't really put a finger on what it was that he felt. Deciding that deep thinking such as this was left for a much better time, such as never, House banished all thoughts from his head and propped his legs up on the couch, as he settled in to watch the 'latest and greatest' crime drama.

---

Wilson came out of the bathroom after Cameron had gone and flopped on the couch where he had been sitting previously and the two men sat in silence for a while.

Knowing House well enough to give him a bit of space, Wilson didn't say anything, instead waiting for House to decide that he wanted to talk, which he did, about fifteen minutes later.

"I nearly screwed up today." House said once the program has stopped for an ad break.

Wilson looked curiously at House, but didn't say anything, letting House continue. He wondered what it could be that House was going to tell him, and resolved to try and stay as neutral as possible.

"I, uh, damn it, I wasn't going to tell you this. Damn Cameron, she said it would be good for our friendship." House muttered. "I had an old bottle of morphine stashed away from a while back, and I very nearly used it."

"You what!?" Wilson exclaimed, momentarily forgetting his pact to stay neutral. He took a breath and tried again, speaking calmly so not to put House on the defensive. "Where is it now?" he asked, looking around to see if he could spot the bottle of opiate.

"Cameron got rid of it. I didn't use it. I couldn't. Something stopped me, I'm not sure what."

Now Wilson looked at House curiously, his friend wasn't one to be unsure of something he did. "You must have some idea?" Wilson prodded.

House shrugged. "I don't know. It seemed that as much as I felt that I wanted the pain relief, something was telling me that I didn't need it, that I shouldn't do it."

"That's a good thing." Wilson said, still trying to gauge House's feelings about all this.

House smiled wryly. "I'm just not sure why I'm doing this detoxing and all. It's not like I have anything to live for."

Wilson's face took on an expression of considerable worry. "You're not considering...suicide...are you?" he asked hesitantly.

House shook his head. "I don't want to off myself." He said, repeating the words he had said to Cameron earlier. "I want to live, I'm just not sure what I want to live for," he explained. "Look at me. I'm nearly fifty, I don't have a wife, or even a girlfriend, and you're pretty much my only friend. Even then I don't get why you still stick around, I'm hardly good friend material. I rarely see my parents, and even then I don't get along with my father. No brothers or sisters, therefore no nieces or nephews. My life is pretty much the hospital. I can't really find it in me to care that much about my health, so I guess what I need is another reason to give up the Vicodin. I'm just not sure what that is."

---

I guess I kind of ended that on a bit of a depressing note, and there is plenty more angst to come for all you angst fans. And of course a bit of fluff thrown in for good measure...lol. So let me know what you thought and I'll try and get the next chapter up ASAP.

Rhi


	8. Confessions

Live and Let Die

By Rhi

Chapter Eight – Confessions

---

Hey guys, I just want to say a huge thank you to everyone who reviewed the last chapter! For some reason it got heaps of reviews…not that I'm complaining!

This chapter covers day two of the detox. The last three chapters were day one. Just in case anyone wanted to know.

This chapter is a bit of a filler chapter, so I apologise in advance for that, so I put in a bit of humour and fluff in there to make up for it, but I promise that the next chapter will be the best so far. I've put a sneak preview of it at the end of this chapter to get you all excited for it.

Enjoy!

---

"Hey, that's cheating! You said you'd go easy on me!" Cameron protested as House pulled a fancy manoeuvre and passed her car in the racing game that they were playing on the Playstation. It was a game that House had obviously had a lot of experience with, and Cameron had never even heard of before that day. She couldn't even remember the name of the game.

"Have I taught you nothing?" House said, grinning now that he was winning. "You should know by now that everybody-"

"Lies, yes I know." Cameron cut him off. "And you're the worst of them all." She grumbled good-naturedly.

House put his hand to his chest over his heart and adopted a look of shocked indignation. "That hurts me right here." He joked.

Cameron grinned and took advantage of his preoccupation and overtook his racing car again, cheering as she crossed the finish line milliseconds before House did. "You actually have a heart?" she joked back. "Let me see." She said, placing her hand against House's chest so she could feel the steady beat of his heart beneath her palm.

"So what's the diagnosis, Dr. Cameron?" House said, the joking tone gone from his voice.

Cameron, suddenly aware of their close proximity, looked up to meet his eyes and with that small movement, tension seemed to fill the room as their eyes met, sparking off a familiar overwhelming pull. Then, as quickly as it had begun, it ended, as Cameron was the first to break the spell by speaking.

"It seems as if you're human after all." She said.

"Well, don't go spreading that around." House instructed with mock seriousness. "I have a reputation to maintain."

"Well, I wouldn't want to destroy your reputation now, would I?" Cameron said, imitating House's tone. "Now, how about I challenge you to another race?"

"Fine, but I'm not going to go easy on you this time." House warned playfully.

"Bring it on." Cameron taunted back equally as playfully as House started a new race. Cameron was pleased at how much better House was feeling today, as compared to the previous day. He was only in his second day of detox, but his symptoms seemed to have lost intensity overnight. Sure he still looked like crap, had nausea and cold sweats and he had the shakes in his hands, but his attitude had seemed to have changed. Cameron wasn't sure what it was, but she was happy for him. It would be so much easier on both of them this way.

Cameron knew that House and Wilson had talked the night before, because Wilson had quickly filled her in on it this morning. He didn't go into any detail, which she expected, just informed her about the general gist of the conversation and the fact that he was aware of the almost-incident with the morphine. From that she figured that House must have done a bit of thinking last night and that must be the reason for the new attitude. Whatever the reason, she wasn't going to question it, but she was going to make the most of it while it lasted.

Cameron humoured House's obsession for video games and they played various ones from his collection for most of the morning, but after lunch, she refused to play another game and they sat back on the couch, wondering what else they could do. Until Cameron got an idea.

"Tell me something I don't know about you." She asked, wondering if House would play along.

House looked at Cameron incredulously. "You aren't serious."

Cameron shrugged. "It's not like we've got anything better to do." She said. "I'll start then. Um..." she paused, thinking of what she could say. "When I was fifteen, I was sneaking out of the house to go and see my boyfriend, and as I was climbing down the tree, I fell and fractured four metatarsals. My foot was in agony, but somehow I managed to climb the tree and get back into my bedroom without my parents hearing, and I dropped a stack of books on the floor and pretended that I'd dropped them on my foot. I don't think they believed me, but I spent the next six weeks with a plaster cast up to my knee, which was punishment enough."

"Ah, so you do have a rebellious streak in you then." House said, smirking. "Something to note for future reference."

"If you must." Cameron said, rolling her eyes playfully. "Your turn to 'fess up."

"I would love to, but nature is calling." House said, levering himself up from the couch.

"That's okay, I'll be waiting here when you get back." Cameron said smoothly as House limped out of the room, a grimace on his face.

A few minutes later, Cameron heard the distinctive step-thump of House's gait coming back into the room. He flopped himself on the couch and propped his leg up on the coffee table, making himself comfortable before he spoke.

"When I was thirteen, my dad was stationed in Egypt, and I had this other army brat friend called Billy, and we were inseparable in those days. We used to get into all sorts of trouble. One day he had come over and no one else was home, so we broke into my dad's liquor cabinet and liberated two of the bottles. We took them to the park down the road and drank it all. We were completely trashed by the time my dad found us an hour or so later and I spent the rest of the day and most of the night with my head over the toilet, puking up everything I ever ate. Billy wasn't in much better shape, either. I got a beating I'll never forget from my dad too, once I'd stopped throwing up." House smirked at the memory.

Cameron laughed. "I bet you were a handful when you were growing up. I feel sorry for your poor parents!"

House shrugged. "I had a lot of army discipline drilled into me from my dad, which I rebelled against first chance I had. I never liked having people try to control me."

"I've noticed." Cameron said.

"Enough about me, your turn now."

Cameron thought for a second. "I have a secret fondness for Bon Jovi songs." She said. "They're so addictive!"

House laughed out loud at that one. "It could be worse, I guess." He reasoned. "I actually like to cook. But don't tell Wilson, I think he secretly gets a kick out of me stealing his lunch and making him pay for mine at the cafeteria."

"I'm sure he does." Cameron said wryly. "I was scared of the dark up until I was twelve. I had to sleep with a nightlight. One day my brother thought it would be fun to tell all of the people at school, they then mocked me relentlessly about, so I decided that I would force myself not to be afraid of it anymore."

"Did it work?"

Cameron shrugged. "It took a while, but I managed to convince myself that there was nothing to be scared of."

"So do you just have one brother?"

Cameron shook her head. "I have two brothers and a sister. Nathan's older, and Jack and Abby are younger. Jack was the one who told everyone I was scared of the dark."

"I was scared of the dark too, until my dad found out. He made me sleep in the basement for four nights, until I managed to convince him that I wasn't scared of the dark anymore. He had blacked out the windows so that it was pitch black and I couldn't even see my hand in front of my face. I don't think I slept at all during those four nights. I was only six."

Cameron looked at House with sympathy in her eyes, then realised belatedly that it was the complete wrong thing to do. One of the things that irritated House the most was when people looked at him with sympathy or pity. Cameron could actually see his gaze hardening over and she swore she could see his old grouchy personality coming back through as he slouched back into the couch. The playful House that she had been witness to this morning was gone, and the detoxing House in constant pain was back in the blink of an eye.

Cameron sighed and leaned back into the couch also. She felt a bit guilty for ruining House's good mood. It was clearly helping with his detox progress, and she wondered absently if his symptoms would get worse again. She hoped not, but knew that it was likely. She knew from experience with patients that mood has a direct correlation with physical wellbeing.

House picked up the Playstation controller again and this time chose only a single player game. Cameron figured this as a not so subtle hint that he wasn't pleased with her and was planning to ignore her. She watched him race his car around the track for a couple of laps before pushing herself up from the couch and crossed the room to one of House's bookshelves, running her fingers along the books as she read the titles on the spines, picking out the first one that looked interesting.

Cameron made her way back to the other couch in the lounge, giving House the distance she knew he would want. She knew that his deliberate snub was an automatic defence mechanism, but she couldn't help but feel disappointed as her previous progress with the difficult doctor were nullified and she was back to square one. Knowing it would be a long afternoon ahead of her, Cameron suppressed a sigh and opened the book to page one.

---

Well, I hope you liked that, let me know what you thought!

And, as promised, the sneak preview…

_House hesitated a second, before reaching up and grasping Cameron's outstretched hand, letting her __help__ him up. He found himself standing close to her, so close their bodies were almost touching, looking down into her green eyes, which were staring back into his with the same intensity. Not for the first time, they both felt an irresistible force pulling them together. But unlike previous times, __this time __they both were unable to resist it._

Rhi


	9. Kisses in the Rain

Live and Let Die

By Rhi

Chapter Nine – Kisses in the Rain

---

Hey guys, sorry I've taken so long to post this chapter, I've been so busy recently with work and trying to get organised for Christmas and everything. And I've had a bit of writer's block with the next chapter, but I think I've worked my way through that now! So here's the chapter you've all been waiting for...

Enjoy!

---

House woke up early on the morning of his third day of detox and immediately knew that the day would not be a good one. He had awoken to his leg throbbing painfully, which had also caused him to have a headache. Neither of these problems were solved by the weak painkillers he had access to, so suffice to say, he was not in the most pleasant of moods.

Cameron arrived at eight on the dot, her natural good mood seeming over the top happy compared to House's current dark demeanour. She and Wilson performed what House had dubbed as the 'Changing of the Guard' procedures, where Wilson filled Cameron in on any information that she needed to know, and telling her to call him if she needed him.

It was raining outside, House realised, as Cameron slipped out of her wet coat and hung it on his coat stand. He watched as water began to drip off the sleeves and make little puddles on the floor and remembered the weatherman on the news last night saying that they were in for a big storm, which was supposed to last all day.

Cameron put the rest of her things down on the table and walked over to the piano as if noticing it for the first time. She trailed her fingers along the closed lid gently, almost like a caress as if remembering something fondly, and let her fingers drop off the other end of the smooth black coated wood.

"You play?" she asked, shaking herself out of her reverie.

"No, I just like to look at it."

Cameron ignored the sarcasm, knowing that her obvious question had prompted it.

"I've never heard you play." She stated.

"I don't play for an audience."

"Will you play something now?"

House frowned. "I just said I don't play for an audience." He shot back, slight irritation in his voice.

"I'm not an audience." Cameron said, looking House in the eyes, captivated by the blue. "I'm just me."

House looked as if he were considering it.

"Please. It's been so long since I've heard the piano." Cameron said, almost wistfully.

House levered himself up from the couch and limped over to the piano, trying to look as grumpy as possible, but not entirely succeeding. "One song." He said firmly, lifting the lid to reveal the keys. He placed his fingers on the ivory and began playing Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata from memory, the smooth, melancholy sound of the music filling the apartment.

Cameron stood two steps to the side of the piano and closed her eyes as she let the music wash over her. She had forgotten how much she loved the sound of the piano, and how relaxed this song made her feel. Memories from long ago returned, unbidden, which reminded her of a different time and place, but she pushed them from her mind and concentrated on the music, barely noticing that House had finished the sonata and, despite his previous statement of only playing one song, had segued into another piece that she didn't recognise. He played through the song and ended with a note that resonated throughout the apartment before silence washed over the room again.

"Thank you." Cameron said quietly after a few moments. "I haven't heard that song before, what's it called?"

"It doesn't have a name. I wrote it about three years ago." House answered. He flicked his eyes up towards Cameron's for a second before looking away. "You inspired it." He said quietly.

"Really?" Cameron said quietly, disbelieving that House had just made a confession such as that.

"Yeah." House said simply, then changed the subject. "So why haven't you heard the piano for a long time?"

"It's not important." Cameron said, turning abruptly and walking over to the couches where she sat down.

House closed the lid over the keys and pushed himself up from the piano bench with a curious look on his face. "It must be, because now you're doing that avoidance thing." He followed Cameron's path across the room and sat down on the couch opposite to her and stared at her curiously as if trying to read her innermost secrets.

"That's because I don't want to talk about it." Cameron said firmly.

House ignored her and started guessing what it could be. "Let's see, we have traumatic childhood memories…" he looked at Cameron while talking, gauging her reactions to his guesses. "Siblings, parents, grandparents? No? Well then, what about friends…lovers maybe?" House noticed Cameron's eyes flick up to his, pleading for him to stop, but he didn't. "Or a dead husband perhaps?"

"House." Cameron said firmly, in a no-nonsense tone. "Just leave it."

House wasn't sure why he kept pushing, he could see that the line of questioning was affecting Cameron, but something made him keep going. What had started as an innocent question designed to get the spotlight off him had revealed a piece of a puzzle. And whenever he was presented with a puzzle, House had to solve it. It wasn't like he had any other worthwhile entertainment anyway, and it was her silly decision in the first place to come here and basically babysit him. She should be expecting something like this.

"Why?" House demanded.

Cameron looked at House incredulously. One minute he was telling her that the song he had written had been inspired by her, and the next he had turned a complete about face and was now making her relive memories of her husband, that still hurt to this day.

"Because I don't want to, that's why. I wouldn't expect you to understand. You're making a big deal out of nothing."

"If it's nothing then why won't you tell me?"

"Because I don't want to have to relive the memories. It still hurts, House. A lot. I'm not like you, I can't just ignore things and pretend they didn't happen." Cameron got up from the seat, looking a bit lost, as if she didn't know what to do. "I can't be here right now." She said, making her way towards the door.

She rushed out of the apartment, the door slamming shut behind her. She made her way through the drizzling rain over to where she had parked her car before remembering that in her haste, she had forgotten to grab her bag or keys so she had no way of getting anywhere.

Reaching her car, Cameron leaned both hands on the bonnet, breathing hard. This had taken her by surprise. It had been a long time since she had thought about her husband and the circumstances surrounding their marriage, and she was somewhat surprised to find that it still felt raw. She felt betrayed that House had taken it so far. Over the past few days she felt that she had developed a strange sort of friendship with him, and it seemed to go both ways. He no longer seemed to resent her presence and had actually made some small allowances towards her. But this was unexpected.

As if things couldn't get any worse, the weather decided to throw its opinion in by turning the drizzling rain into a torrential downpour, soaking Cameron's clothes and hair within seconds.

Cameron looked up at the sky with a silent "Why?" resonating through her mind.

Not knowing what else to do, Cameron sunk down to the kerbside, her back leaned against her car as she rested her head on her knees. She had no idea what she was going to do next, but the need for warmth and the sudden overwhelming feeling of vulnerability dictated the aforementioned foetal position.

---

House sat on the couch, staring at his front door, as an overwhelming feeling of guilt overcame him. He knew he shouldn't have gone so far. He knew it right from the beginning, but he ignored the little voice inside that begged him to stop, and carried on anyway. And in the process, maybe destroying the beginnings of a dysfunctional sort of friendship – if you could even call it that – that the two of them had struck up over the past few days.

House grabbed his cane and bounced it on the floor in front of him, trying to decide what he was going to do. He could let this destroy another friendship and alienate another person who cared about him, or he could go out there and apologise. He knew that she would appreciate the latter, but he was hesitant. It went against everything he would normally do.

House sighed. That was the thing about actually caring about other people, it caused him to make all sorts of personal concessions, such as apologising, and admitting he was wrong.

Deciding on his course of action, House pushed himself up from the chair and limped across the room, then he too exited out the front door.

---

Cameron didn't hear him approach until he was kneeling down on the ground next to her, his hand gently touching her arm. She looked up and met his blue gaze, which seemed to have a small element of regret in it.

House had felt extra bad when he stepped onto the path and saw Cameron curled in a ball against her car, soaked to the bone. When he had touched her arm and she had looked up at him, he had seen her green eyes filled with hurt and sadness and her face wet from the rain so that he couldn't tell if she had been crying or not.

"I'm sorry." House blurted out, breaking the silence with the seldom uttered words. "I shouldn't have pushed you, it's your story to tell and it was none of my business." He sighed. "I'm not good at this."

Cameron pulled the corner of her mouth up into a sad half smile. "You're doing just fine." She said, then reached up and wrapped her arms around House, pulling him into an embrace, feeling a small sense of victory as House hesitantly closed his arms around her as well, returning the hug.

"I'm sorry too. I think I overreacted a bit, and it wasn't fair on you. I'll tell you about Danny, my husband. But it's not a story that many people know. I just couldn't bear to tell them." Cameron said quietly, then sneezed.

"Okay, but first we're going to get you inside and dried off. If you get sick, who will come and keep me company?" House said, trying to lift the mood a bit.

Cameron smiled the same sad half-smile as before and rose to her feet, and automatically without thinking, offered House her hand to help him up.

House hesitated a second, before reaching up and grasping Cameron's outstretched hand, letting her pull him up. He found himself standing close to her, so close their bodies were almost touching, looking down into her green eyes, which were staring back into his with the same intensity. Not for the first time, they both felt an irresistible force pulling them together. But unlike previous times, this time they both were unable to resist it.

Time seemed to slow as House dipped his head towards Cameron's and their lips brushed together gently, once, twice, then a third time with much more need and hunger. Cameron lifted her arms up around House's neck, and House's hands were splayed across Cameron's back, his right hand still holding his cane and his left hand working its way underneath Cameron's t-shirt to feel the smooth skin beneath.

The kiss became hungrier as they became intoxicated with each other's taste and feel, both suddenly realising exactly what they had missed out on before this moment.

The kiss seemed to go on forever, yet at the same time, when they finally pulled back from each other, it seemed as if it weren't long enough.

They stood slightly apart from each other, but House still had his hands firmly around Cameron's waist and Cameron still had her arms locked around his neck. Neither of them knew what to say, and neither of them seemed willing to ruin the moment with mere words. But it was still pouring with rain, and by now, both were soaked to the skin.

"Come on, let's get you inside." House said, directing Cameron back towards the apartment with his left hand still resting on the small of her back.

---

Feedback is always welcome.

xo Rhi


	10. Cameron's Story

Live and Let Die

By Rhi

Chapter Ten – Cameron's Story

---

Sorry guys for being so slack with my updates! I've been working heaps and work has been so hectic and I've just been way too tired to write. I work in a pharmacy and everyone is coming to get their prescriptions before they go away on holiday, and of course those last-minute Christmas presents. I'm hoping to get another chapter up before Christmas, but if I don't, Merry Christmas to you all!

Thanks heaps to everyone who reviewed the last chapter, it's always great to see what you guys think of my story. And I also want to thank the few of you who have said that I've managed to keep House in character. Honestly, that's the one thing I worry most about when writing this fic. He is such a complicated character, I'm constantly second-guessing myself about what he would say or how he would act in a situation. But funnily enough, the character I find hardest to write is Wilson! I love his character, but I find it quite difficult to gauge how he would react to a situation. Well anyway, I've written quite a bit of him into this chapter, so you guys will have to let me know how I've done.

Enjoy!

---

They entered the apartment, their feet making little puddles of water on the polished wood floor. Cameron waited in the entrance way while House went to the bathroom and retrieved some towels. He tossed a couple to Cameron and they both proceeded to dry themselves off as much as possible.

Cameron sneezed again, this time twice in a row. House looked up and frowned. "Wait there." He said, limping off down the hallway, his limp more pronounced due to being out in the cold rain. Cold always made his leg worse, both in physical ability and also in pain.

A few minutes later House re-emerged from his bedroom with a pair of trackpants, a faded Rolling Stones t-shirt and a black hooded sweatshirt. He handed them to Cameron. "Go and change in the bathroom."

Cameron did as she was told, and took the pile of clothes into the bathroom. She peeled off her wet clothes and wrung the water out of them into the sink before hanging them over the shower rail to dry. She picked up the t-shirt and slipped it on. It still smelled like House, the unique scent that she associated with him wafted around her, becoming stronger as her body heat warmed the fabric, releasing more of the fragrance.

Quickly slipping on the trackpants and the sweatshirt, Cameron exited the bathroom and made her way to the lounge, where House was already occupying the couch, having changed into dry clothes already.

He turned to look at her as she came into the room, and watched as she made her way over to the other couch and sat down. Neither knew quite how to act around the other now that they had taken that almost taboo first step and kissed.

"Well, I guess I should tell you about Danny then." Cameron said.

"You don't have to." House said quickly. "Not if you don't want to."

Cameron shook her head. "No, I think it will be good to tell you." She curled her legs to one side underneath her and bunched the too long sleeves of the sweatshirt around her hands. She took a deep breath and began, looking down at her hands as she spoke. "I'd known Danny since we were kids. He was a year older than me. We lived on the same street, went to the same schools, we pretty much grew up together. He was the sweetest guy I ever met, and I loved him so much. We started dating in high school, it just seemed the natural thing to do. We dated for a few years, and then when I was twenty, Danny asked me to marry him, and of course I said yes. A month after we became engaged, Danny found out about his brain tumour. We were both devastated. He tried to convince me not to marry him so I wouldn't be stuck with someone who was just going to die, in a marriage that wasn't going to go anywhere. But I wouldn't let him back out of it. So we set the wedding date for a month later. Our parents organised most of the wedding as Danny and I were busy with doctor's appointments and treatments and all that."

Cameron paused and took a deep breath, playing nervously with the sleeve of the sweatshirt. "We had a small wedding in my back yard, with only close family and friends. Two weeks after the wedding Danny came to me and told me that he wanted me to have his child, so that I wouldn't be alone after he died and I would always have a piece of him with me. Two months later I was pregnant with Danny's child. Danny was ecstatic, but he was also going downhill quickly by that stage. Then, six months after we got married, Danny passed away. The stress of his death and the subsequent funeral took its toll on me, and I wasn't taking care of myself properly. As a result, two weeks after Danny died, I lost the baby. I was devastated, and it took me a long time before I pulled myself back together again and was able to get on with life. I moved away from home shortly after that, there were too many reminders. I made it into med school and threw myself into my study. It felt good to be anonymous, just another person trying to get by. No one knows that story because I don't tell anyone. The only ones that know the full story are my family and a few friends back home. And now you."

"So what's with the piano then?" House asked. "Why did that trigger all this?"

"Danny loved playing the piano. He was really good at it, too. People used to hire him to play for all sorts of things. He had so many songs memorised and he could play a song almost perfectly after hearing it only once. He used to write me songs all the time and play them for me. He had such passion when he played. I haven't been able to listen to piano music since then."

"I'm sorry." House said, kind of awkwardly.

Cameron smiled sadly. "Don't be. I guess it's time that I dealt with the past and began looking toward the future. I thought that getting away from my family and everything would make it all go away, but I should've known that something like this would happen someday." She paused and toyed with the sleeve of the sweatshirt again. "Out of everybody I know, I'm kinda glad I was with you for it."

---

"What has got you so uptight today?" Wilson asked that evening as he handed House a plate of dessert and took a spoonful of his own.

House sighed and leaned back against the back of the couch, ignoring the ice cream dessert. "I kissed Cameron." He came right out and said it.

Wilson's eyes opened wide with shock and he dropped the spoon back into the bowl. He seemed momentarily lost for words, then shook a know-it-all finger at House. "You're in big trouble now, you know that."

House ran a hand through his hair. "Don't you think I know that." He shot back.

"What are you going to do?" Wilson asked.

"I don't know." House said, shrugging his shoulders.

Wilson eyed House curiously. "You actually like her, don't you?"

"Enough to not want to hurt her. You know I'm not good with relationships. I always manage to screw it up somehow. I don't think I should even go there with her, I'll just end up hurting her."

"But don't you think that you should give her that choice. Sure, if she decides that she wants to have a relationship with you, I'll advise her to get her head examined, but I think you should let her make that decision for herself."

House looked as if he were considering what Wilson said.

Wilson continued. "Look, I know that you don't like change and that you're rather fond of your exciting bachelor life of coming home alone to your TV and takeaway food, but why not give it a try. If it doesn't work out, fine, but what if it does? Think of what you could be missing out on."

House ate a spoonful of the ice cream and pondered what Wilson had just said. It would take a very patient person to put up with him in a relationship. Just the very act of being in a serious relationship almost went against everything he stood for. He wasn't the kind of person to put himself out there emotionally, or to put someone else first. He had always been like this. He used to be slightly better before his infarction, hence the long relationship with Stacy, but since then he had changed. He knew that if he were to have a relationship with Cameron, she deserved to have a serious relationship. She wasn't the type of person that should be in a casual relationship. She deserved much better than that. He just wondered if he could be that kind of person that could provide that.

---

Day four arrived bright and sunny, the thunderstorms of the previous day long forgotten. Cameron arrived at House's place with the beginning of the new day, on the doorstep at seven a.m. sharp. She seemed a little bit hesitant as she entered the apartment, not knowing exactly how to act after the previous day. She and House hadn't yet discussed The Kiss from the previous day, but she was a little nervous as to what would happen. She wasn't sure if House would completely pretend that it didn't happen, or whether he would reject her straight out. She left no room in her mind for optimism, as she knew from past experience with House that it didn't generally work out that way.

House wasn't up when she arrived, but that wasn't unusual. He enjoyed sleeping in.

Cameron made herself comfortable on the couch and picked up the book she had started the other day, opening it to the page that she had marked by dog-earing the corner of the page. Five minutes later, Wilson entered the lounge, obviously straight from the shower as his hair was damp and he smelled of soap.

"Hi." Cameron greeted him normally, as she usually would.

"Hi, Cameron, how are you today?" Wilson returned, trying to stifle a grin.

"I'm fine." Cameron said slowly, furrowing her brow as she considered Wilson's subtle change in behaviour. Her eyes briefly widened once she guessed. "He told you, didn't he?" she said.

Wilson's lack of answer told Cameron all that she needed to know. "He just had to spread it around, didn't he? Probably joked about how he was going to reject me. Did he tell you what I told him yesterday too? Thought it'd be funny to spread my sad little story around?" she said, jumping to conclusions and getting more and more worked up, her annoyance at House growing by the second.

Wilson, surprised at Cameron's sudden tirade, held out his hands, palms towards her, in an effort to get her to slow down and chill out. "Whoa, stop right there. I don't know what you're going on about. House didn't tell me anything, just that he had kissed you. It wasn't some kind of conquest bragging or anything though. He didn't tell me anything else. And if it's any consolation, I think it actually meant something to him."

That shut Cameron up, and she looked at Wilson, her eyes wide and her mouth slightly open. "Really?" was all she could say.

"Yes, really." Wilson said. "But you'll probably have a hard time getting it out of him. I'm sure you know this already, but he's not great at the emotional stuff. You have to give him time and space to come to conclusions on his own."

Cameron just nodded.

Wilson looked at his watch, startling as he looked at the time. "Oh, I've got to go. Good luck today. I've made an appointment for House with Dr. Gatley at three-thirty this afternoon to check his liver function tests again."

Cameron nodded again. "Okay, I'll bring him in."

"Thanks." Wilson said, picking up his bags. "See you later." He rushed out the door and suddenly the apartment was silent.

---

Reviews are a girl's best friend…

xo Rhi


	11. I Want You

Live and Let Die

By Rhi

Chapter Eleven – I Want You

---

You guys are truly awesome! The feedback you guys left me for the last chapter was so inspiring that I knocked together this little chapter especially for those of you who reviewed. It's a little bit short, but I guarantee that you will enjoy it!

On a slightly less good note, I'm working all of Christmas week (Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday!), so I probably won't be able to write the next chapter until next weekend, but I will try to find some time during the week to get some writing done.

Well, that's it from me, I hope you guys enjoy this little chapter!

---

It was a couple more hours until House emerged from the bedroom, looking all dishevelled and sleepy. This was now the fourth day of his detox, but he was still getting through the toughest part. His limp was more pronounced as usual as he leaned heavily on his cane and made his way across the room to the couch, where he sat down in his usual spot.

"Morning." Cameron greeted, looking up from the book she was reading.

House just made a grunting-like noise, not bothering to form words.

"Eloquent this morning are we?" Cameron asked, amused. She got up from the couch and made her way past House towards the kitchen. She paused by House and touched his arm. "How's the leg?"

"The usual." House snarked. "It hurts."

Cameron nodded and made her way towards the kitchen. "I'll get your meds and some breakfast."

Cameron quickly prepared some toast for House and took them out to him along with a glass of milk and his morning meds.

House took the plate without any acknowledgement or thanks and began eating. Frowning, Cameron placed the glass and tablets on the coffee table and went back to her own seat, where she curled her legs up underneath her and pretended to read her book, while she observed House. The tension between the two of them was palpable, but it wasn't good tension, it was the tension that came from crossing a line, and now neither of them knew how to act around the other.

"Take a picture, it'll last longer." House snarked, as he looked up from his breakfast and noticed that Cameron was watching him.

Cameron didn't take the bait. "We need to talk." She said.

"Cameron –" House started, but was cut off.

"Allie." She said. "My friends call me Allie."

"Allie." House said, testing out the unfamiliar word. "Friends, huh?"

Cameron shrugged. "I don't know. How would you define our relationship?"

"Complicated."

"That's putting it lightly." Cameron returned wryly.

House sighed. "What do you want from me?" he asked.

"For now, whatever you're willing to give me." Cameron said. "I know it's not going to be easy for either one of us. I'm not Little Miss Perfect. I come with my own hang ups, you know that. But I think that we owe it to ourselves to try."

"I could think of a hundred reasons not to." House said.

"And I can think of a hundred reasons we should." Cameron countered.

"I'm too old for you."

"Age is just a matter of opinion. Besides you don't look it, and you definitely don't act it."

"I'm not good at relationships."

"And I'm out of practice. We can learn together."

"I'm grouchy and sarcastic."

"But that's part of your charm. Besides, I know you can be nice when you want to."

"There's this." House said, gesturing to his leg.

"So? You have your scars on the outside, most people's are on the inside. Besides, I think you've proven that there's not much you can't do."

"I don't want to hurt you." This said much quieter.

"Everybody gets hurt sometimes. I've been hurt before and I'm sure I'll be hurt again."

"You deserve better than me."

"No." Cameron said emphatically, quickly rising from her chair and walking over to House. "No. I won't have you saying that about yourself. I don't deserve better than you. And I want you, if you'll have me."

House hesitated, then replied, "Of course I'll have you. Why would I not want you?" House tried to sound grumpy, but didn't entirely succeed.

Cameron broke out into a grin.

"Are you sure about this?" House asked again.

Cameron didn't answer, instead she just leaned down and kissed him gently on the lips. She went to pull away, but House's hand reached up around the back of her head and prevented her from moving. Their lips made contact again, this time harder and driven by passion. Without breaking contact, Cameron moved around so that she could sit down on the couch next to House. One of her hands came up to rest on the stubble on his jaw and the other rested on his shoulder before trailing down his arm and capturing his hand in her own and interlinking their fingers. Cameron broke away and this time House let her.

"Does that answer your question?"

---

Merry Christmas everyone!

xo Rhi


	12. Invincible

Live and Let Die

By Rhi

Chapter Twelve – Invincible

---

Firstly I just want to say a HUGE thank you to everyone that's reviewed so far. I'm so stoked that my little story has made it over a hundred reviews and it's all thanks to all you guys who have given me the most wonderful feedback and encouraged me to keep on writing.

Secondly, I want to apologise for how long this chapter's taken me to get out. I've been so busy, and this and the next chapter have both required a bit of research, you'll see what I mean when you read them. I've also been watching a lot of CSI, and I needed to watch a couple of House episodes to get myself over my mild case of writer's block and back into the House groove before I started writing him again.

Thirdly, I know that a couple of you thought that House gave in to Cameron too easily in the last chapter, so I wanted to explain my reasoning. I've always felt that House's hesitation to enter a relationship with Cameron lay solely with himself and his own insecurities rather than not wanting to be with her. I always thought that if a situation like I wrote occurred, with the facts presented logically like that, then he would have less of a reason to say no. I'm not sure if that's completely accurate to the show or not, but that's the way I've always seen it, and I'm glad you all enjoyed it. Besides, do you really think a guy like him would say no to a beautiful woman like Cameron? I think not.

And lastly (sorry, I know this author's note has been quite long!), I don't normally do songfics, in fact, I don't really like them much, but a lot of my work is inspired by songs, as I love music. In this chapter, I've used a song by Muse called Invincible. If you've heard the song, then you will know how wonderful it is and I think it fits this chapter quite well. And if you haven't heard the song, then you should really listen to it (and the rest of the album too!) because it's a fantastic song by an amazing band. I've posted part of the lyrics below.

Enjoy!

---

_Follow through  
__Make your dreams come true  
__Don't give up the fight  
__You will be al__l __right  
__'Cause there's no one like you in the universe_

_Don't be afraid  
__What your mind conceives  
__You should make a stand  
__Stand up for what you believe  
__And tonight  
__We can truly say  
__Together we're invincible_

Invincible – Muse

---

At ten past three that afternoon, House and Cameron bundled themselves into Cameron's car and headed in the direction of Princeton Plainsboro Teaching Hospital. Cameron was driving and House was sitting in the passenger seat and surfing through the radio stations trying to find something worth listening to.

"I can't believe you listen to this crap." House complained, after finding nothing worth listening to.

Cameron just smiled, and reached into the centre console, pulling out her iPod and plugging it into the adapter. "Try this." She said, handing the iPod over to House.

House selected the shuffle setting and skipped through the first few songs before letting one play. "I didn't know you liked Muse."

"There's lots you don't know about me." Cameron said, glancing at House and giving him a cheeky smile. "This is one of my favourite songs. It reminds me of you."

"Let's use this chance to turn things around. And tonight we can truly say together we're invincible." House said, quoting the lyrics that had just been sung in the chorus. "Kind of relevant, I guess."

"Yeah, I guess it is now." Cameron said.

The rest of the drive to the hospital was punctuated by House's comments about the rest of her music collection. He mocked the occasional pop song that she had, while lamenting over the fact that she didn't have some of the classics in her collection. Something he would have to remedy as soon as possible, he thought.

The usually busy hospital seemed to go silent when House walked through the front doors. The nurses are reception forgot all about the files they were sorting and the patients they were organising and stared at House as he crossed the room, headed towards the lifts.

House raised a questioning eyebrow and looked at Cameron. "Do I have something on my face?" he said in a stage whisper.

Cameron smiled. "They probably just missed you, that's all." She joked.

Cuddy spotted the two doctors from her office and strode across the lobby to meet them. She looked House up and down and smiled. "You're looking a lot better than when I last saw you." She said.

"Well, considering I'm not puking my guts up all over everything anymore, I feel a lot better than when you last saw me too."

"That's good." Cuddy said, then turned to Cameron. "How's he doing?"

"Hello, still here!" House said, waving his hand in front of Cuddy's face.

Cameron just smiled at his antics. "As you can see, he's doing a lot better. He's still got a long way to go though, but I'm confident he will make it." She said, looking at House and smiling a gentle smile at him. House didn't smile back, but his blue eyes softened and told Cameron everything she needed to know.

Cuddy looked from Cameron to House curiously, noticing the subtle change in the pair's body language. Cuddy would never have said she was an expert at reading people, but she had known House for years, and this new behaviour from him was a mystery that she noted and filed away for future reference as she ushered them towards an open lift after all the occupants had exited it.

"So what was with the staring thing back there?" House questioned once the doors had closed.

Cuddy laughed. "Well, with you gone, the hospital rumour mill is running overtime. Current favourite is that I've finally snapped and you are now buried underneath my roses. Others include various versions of you running away with a hooker/underage girl/married woman. My personal favourite is that you ran off to Vegas to get married to Dr. Cameron."

Cameron's jaw dropped, and she looked at House uncertainly, but fortunately they were saved from having to comment when the lift's doors opened with a _ding_, revealing Wilson, who stepped on board.

House rolled his eyes. "Anyone else you know that would like to come to my appointment? We could have a party while we're there. I'll book the strippers."

"Not in my hospital you don't." Cuddy said, giving House a death stare, prompting him to shrug and look as innocent as possible.

"I thought you'd enjoy that. My bad." House said, smirking.

"And here's me thinking that I actually missed you around here." Cuddy said.

"Aww, you missed me. That's so sweet. Too bad I can't say the same about you."

Cuddy opened her mouth to shoot back a retort, but the lift had arrived at their destination, so they all stepped out of the lift and made their way to Dr. Gatley's examination room. The middle-aged doctor was waiting for them when they arrived and he stood as they filed into the room.

The room was definitely not designed with five occupants in mind, and as Dr. Gatley directed House to sit on the bed, Cameron, Wilson and Cuddy tried to find spots to stand that were out of the way of the gastroenterologist.

"Your colour's looking better." Dr. Gatley observed. "Jaundice is almost fully gone. How are you feeling?"

"Fine." House answered.

"I'm going to need a little more than 'fine'." Dr. Gatley said with an amused smile. "How's the detox going?"

"I feel like crap, my leg is in constant agony, the painkillers I'm on don't even begin to kill the pain, but I'm just peachy, thank you for asking."

"Good to know you're feeling fine." Dr. Gatley said, firing some good-natured sarcasm back at House. Gatley turned and picked up a needle. "I'll draw some blood so we can see if your liver function is improving."

Dr. Gatley punctured the needle through House's skin and into the vein and attached the collection vial. Everyone watched as House's deep red blood squirted into the vial and quickly filled it.

Dr. Gatley removed the needle and placed a gauze pad over the needle puncture mark, instructing House to hold it in place. Gatley filled in the patient details on the vial and briefly left the room, dropping off the vial with one of his nurses.

"I sent it to the lab with a rush on it. Results should be back in about half an hour if they're not busy. You guys are welcome to wait in here, I've got no more patients to see here today."

---

A little under half an hour later, Dr. Gatley re entered the room, holding the lab results in his hand. He had a smile on his face, indicating that he had good news to share.

"The results have definitely improved from your last tests." He said. "Your ALT, GGT, ammonia and direct bilirubin levels are still elevated, but are now only marginally above normal range. The liver is a magnificent organ, it is one of the few organs in the body that has the ability to regenerate itself, and it looks as if yours is already beginning to heal. If you keep on going as you are, I don't see any reason why your liver wouldn't fully regenerate."

Identical looks of relief immediately appeared on Cameron, Wilson and Cuddy's faces. On the outside, House remained slightly more impartial, but on the inside, he was also sighing with relief. He had never been one for outward displays of emotion, other than anger and sarcasm, even while being confronted with his own mortality it was difficult for him not to internalise everything.

"I'll make an appointment for you in a week's time to re-check your liver panel and to see how you're doing." Dr. Gatley said, writing the appointment time down on a piece of paper and handing it to House.

The five doctors filed out of the room, thanking Dr. Gatley before heading down the hallway in the direction of the lifts.

Once in the lift, Cuddy looked up at House with a hesitant expression on her face. "I don't really want to ask you this while you're on leave, but…" she paused, giving House enough time to interject with a remark of his own.

"Then I'm pretty sure that I don't want you to ask me this either, but I sense that you're going to anyway." House said.

Cuddy narrowed her eyes at House, but continued nevertheless. "A ten-year-old boy was brought into the clinic three days ago with flu-like symptoms. He was diagnosed with a mild case of the flu and sent home for bed rest. A day later his mother brought him back in because his symptoms had worsened. He was admitted and had a multitude of tests run on him, yet no one can figure out what's wrong with him."

"And you want me to look at his chart." House said, guessing Cuddy's next words.

"Would you?" Cuddy said, her eyes pleading with House.

"This place can't even last a week without me." House said smugly.

"So are you going to help this kid out or not?"

"Yeah I guess so, I've got a spare few hours before my date with the TV."

---

I promise I will have the next chapter up very soon! I'm in the process of writing it right now.

- Rhi


	13. Back in the Groove

Live and Let Die

By Rhi

Chapter Thirteen – Back in the Groove

---

So here I am with a quick update! Can you believe it? Lol. This chapter just seemed to write itself once I'd done all the research. So this chapter and the next have a bit of medical stuff in it, I've tried to make it as believable and as accurate as possible, but I've only had information from websites to go off, so please excuse any inaccuracies. I wanted to do a House-type medical mystery chapter, so this is my attempt at it.

Enjoy!

---

Cuddy led House, Cameron and Wilson to Taylor Marsden's room. The ten-year-old was lying on the bed, surrounded by the multitude of typical hospital machines, monitoring everything from his heart rate to his oxygen saturation. The boy's mother was sitting in the chair by his bedside, her face drawn with worry and fatigue. She looked up as the four doctors entered.

"Lauren, how are you doing?" Cuddy asked.

The woman shrugged. "I don't know." She said resignedly.

"Well, I have some good news for you." She indicated to House and Cameron behind her. "This is Dr. House and Dr. Cameron. Dr. House is the head of diagnostic medicine at this hospital. He's going to take a look at your son."

"Will he know what's wrong with my baby?" Lauren asked.

"Dr. House has solved hundreds of cases that have had other doctors stumped. I'm sure he will find out what's wrong with Taylor." Cuddy said, her voice reassuring to the worried mother.

Lauren Marsden rose from her chair and walked over to House, her eyes pleading and shining with unshed tears. "Please find out what's wrong with my boy. He's my life. I don't know what I would do without him."

House nodded once, then turned to the three doctors beside him. "Cuddy, I'm going to need a copy of the boy's chart and test results. Wilson, I'm going to need some coffee and a doughnut. Can't work on an empty stomach, you know. Cameron, you're with me. Meet me in my office in five."

Wilson rolled his eyes at House's request, but left without a word, following Cuddy towards the lifts.

House walked around the corner, with Cameron following close behind. He stopped once he had rounded the corner and leaned up against the wall, grimacing and gripping his right thigh with his hand.

"What's wrong? Is your leg playing up?" Cameron asked, her hand gravitating to House's arm, trying to offer him her support.

"Yeah." House said in a strained voice. "Too much walking I think. You got any of my pain pills with you?"

Cameron fished around in her bag, searching for the pill bottle that she had deposited in there before they had left. She found it and pulled it out, shaking two of the ibuprofen pills out into House's hand.

"What would you do without me?" she smirked good-naturedly.

House chose not to answer, instead he dry swallowed the pills and leaned his head back against the wall, waiting for the pain relief to kick in.

"Do you want me to get you a wheelchair?" Cameron asked.

House shook his head. "No. I'll be fine, just give me a minute."

Once the pain in his leg had begun to subside, House pushed away from the wall and started walking in the direction of the lifts. His limp was a lot more pronounced than usual, and Cameron could tell that the ibuprofen hadn't fully kicked in yet.

Cameron came up beside House and grabbed his hand, pulling it up and over her shoulders in an attempt to take some of his weight off his leg.

Cameron expected some kind of protest from him, but surprisingly enough, House left his arm around her shoulders, even going so far as to tighten his grip around her shoulders and tug her closer so she could take more of his weight.

Cameron smiled, though she was careful not to let House see it. Even a mere week ago, he would never have done this. She was surprised but happy at how far they had come in the last few days. House seemed to trust her, and was willing to accept help from her, something he would have never done before. She wasn't sure if it was the detox process or the beginnings of their relationship, but she was happy that he was finally letting someone be there for him.

House's office was only one floor down from Taylor Marsden's room, so the lift trip was short. Before the doors opened, House gave Cameron's shoulder a quick squeeze as a thank-you, and removed his arm. Although Cameron expected nothing less, and knew that he wouldn't want Cuddy and Wilson to see him like that, she still missed the contact that they'd had.

The pain meds seemed to have kicked in, as House's gait was nearly back to normal as he limped down the hallway to his office. Cameron followed close to his side, just in case he needed her support again.

Cuddy and Wilson were already waiting in the conference room, seated at the table, Taylor Marsden's chart open in front of them, along with four cups of coffee in takeaway foam cups and four doughnuts in a paper bag that had been torn open.

"What took you so long?" Cuddy asked.

"Quickie in the bathroom." House said, then indicated to Cameron. "She can't get enough of me."

Cuddy and Wilson looked at Cameron, who rolled her eyes exaggeratedly, trying to feign exasperation, while attempting to control the blush that threatened to redden her cheeks. That kind of teasing was fine before, but now that they had some sort of relationship thing going on, she found the jokes a little close to home.

"We should probably focus on saving Taylor Marsden's life right now, don't you think?" Cameron said.

"Absolutely right." House said, picking up one of the coffees and swiping a doughnut. He took a seat at the head of the table and propped his legs up on the chair in front of him, tossing a whiteboard marker at Cameron. "You can be scribe."

Cameron caught the marker awkwardly, but didn't drop it. She scowled at House, uncapping the marker and turning to the whiteboard.

"What do we have?" House asked.

Cuddy read out the patient history from the chart. "Patient presented to the clinic three days ago with fever, chills, constant headache, body aches and vomiting. He was prescribed paracetamol and pedialyte and sent home for bed rest. Two days ago he was brought back in with progressively worsening symptoms, and was admitted immediately. Now he has all those symptoms, plus a red rash, and his kidneys are starting to give out."

Cameron scribbled _fever, chills, headache, body ache, vomiting, rash, kidney failure_ on the whiteboard.

"Go." House said, indicating that the three doctors should begin the differential diagnosis.

"Leptospirosis." Wilson said, kicking it off.

"Possible." House said, nodding.

"What about eastern equine encephalitis?" Cuddy followed.

"If he's been near horses lately." House said, then looked at Cameron.

"What about Rocky Mountain spotted fever?" Cameron suggested.

"Good. Anything else?" House asked.

"Lymphoma." Wilson said.

"You oncologists always think it's cancer." House snarked. "It's unlikely, but do a biopsy anyway. Also do blood and urine cultures for the leptospirosis and Rocky Mountain spotted fever. Do an LP while you're at it too. Get a liver panel as well, I want to see how that's holding up."

Cuddy, Wilson and Cameron left the room to go and do the testing. Cameron looked back at House as she passed outside the room, and smiled. He was still sitting in the same chair, legs propped up, staring at the whiteboard. To the casual observer it looked like he was just relaxing, but Cameron knew better. He was getting back into his groove. This was definitely going to be good for him.

---

Taylor Marsden's mother was gone when the three doctors entered the room. Assuming that she had gone to get a cup of coffee or something to eat, they checked out the sedated boy's vital stats and recorded them on the chart.

Cuddy set about getting blood for testing, inserting a needle into the crook of his elbow and drawing blood from the vein beneath, while Wilson collected a urine sample from the catheter collection bag. Cameron prepared the equipment for a lumbar puncture.

Once Cuddy and Wilson had finished their collections, Cameron rolled Taylor onto his side and prepared to do the lumbar puncture. She located the gap between the lumbar vertebrae L3 and L4 and inserted the needle until it pierced through the dura mater. Cameron collected some of the clear cerebrospinal fluid in the collection vial and withdrew the needle. With the help of Cuddy, she rolled Taylor back over onto his back and arranged him comfortably in the bed.

Wilson noted the tests on Taylor's chart and just as they were about to leave, the machines around Taylor's bed started beeping wildly, and Taylor started gasping for breath.

"He's going into respiratory distress!" Cuddy exclaimed, grabbing an intubation kit from the drawer and handing it to Cameron who had pushed Taylor's bed away from the wall and was preparing him for intubation.

It was at this point that Lauren Marsden walked back into the room, holding a cup of coffee. She looked shocked at what was going on, and her face paled. "What's happening to my baby?" she cried.

"Ma'am, you can't be in here right now." Wilson said, trying to get her to leave the room so they could work on Taylor.

Two nurses ran up to the room to give assistance, and pushed their way into the room, past Lauren Marsden.

"Get her out of here." Wilson instructed one of the nurses, indicating to Lauren, who was standing in the doorway, staring at her son.

"You're going to need to come with me, ma'am." The nurse said, gently leading Lauren out of the room.

Meanwhile, Cameron had intubated Taylor and was in the process of hooking up the oxygen machine. The alarms stopped and the room suddenly seemed so much quieter. The steady beep from the heart monitor indicated that Taylor's heart was returning to a normal rate.

Cameron frowned as she checked the display on the machine. "Has anyone noticed that his blood pressure is quite low? Or is that a recent thing?" she asked.

Cuddy looked up at the machine. "You're right," she agreed. "It is quite low, especially seeing as he's just been in respiratory distress, his blood pressure would have gone up much more than this."

"I'll up his saline drip for the moment, until we can figure out what's going on." Cameron said as she adjusted the flow rate of Taylor's IV saline, in order to increase his blood volume, which would in turn increase his blood pressure.

After one last check to make sure everything was all right, the three doctors left the room and made their way down to the lab.

---

Well, I hope you enjoyed this chapter. The diagnosis will be revealed in the next chapter, but feel free to speculate if you so desire. And I would love to know what you thought of the medical stuff.

-Rhi


	14. Shock

Live and Let Die

By Rhi

Chapter Fourteen - Shock

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I can't believe that I've left you guys hanging for almost a month. I'm so sorry! Real life just jumped up and bit me in the ass recently, and I've been really busy with work and a whole bunch of other stuff. Not to mention that I had writer's block for a bit, but I'm over that now (hopefully!). So for your reading pleasure, here's the next chapter and the conclusion of the medical mystery arc. No one managed to guess what the diagnosis is, so read on to find out what poor little Taylor is sick with.

Enjoy!

---

An hour later, Cameron, Wilson and Cuddy were sitting around the table in the conference room once again. House was still sitting in the same position, but he had retrieved a couple of medical text books, which were open on the table in front of him. The whiteboard had two more symptoms on it, _respiratory distress _and_ hypotension_.

"What about Legionnaire's?" Cameron suggested.

"Or any of the togaviridae viruses." Wilson said.

"Hepatitis?" Cuddy suggested.

"Possible. Possible, the test for equine encephalitis will confirm that. And maybe, but unlikely." House said, answering each doctor in turn.

There was a knock at the glass door, and one of the lab techs, who was now breathless from running all the way there from the lab, stood there with a folder containing their test results in his hands.

"Thank you, Michael." Cuddy said, retrieving the folder and opening it out on the table. "Tests were negative for leptospirosis, all of the togaviridae viruses, and the biopsy for lymphoma was negative. Renal tests show elevated blood urea nitrogen and creatinine. Liver panel shows elevated bilirubin, alanine aminotransferase, and aspartate aminotransferase. Blood platelet count is down."

"So that rules out all except for Rocky Mountain spotted fever. Test his blood for antibodies for Legionnaire's, and anything else you can think of." House instructed, before pushing himself off his chair and shutting himself in his office. The three doctors watched as he made himself comfortable in his chair and started bouncing his oversized tennis ball against the wall. They all knew well enough that this was House's way of thinking, and they all easily recognised the look on his face that indicated that he was deep in thought.

Cuddy and Wilson left to do the tests, and Cameron began flicking through the open medical text books, seeing if anything jumped out at her.

---

House bounced the ball against the floor at such an angle so it would then bounce off the wall and back into his hand, making a satisfying _thwuck_ noise each time it hit something. He was enjoying being back in the hospital, having something to occupy his mind. Even though he had people to keep him company, he was going stir crazy at home with nothing to do except watch TV and sleep.

Not to say that the last few days had been a complete waste, however, House thought, as his thoughts turned to the beautiful brunette currently sitting out in the conference room. He was surprised at how things had turned out. Of course he had known that she had harboured a little crush on him when she first started working for him, but that's all he thought it was – a crush – and tried his best to squash those feelings in her, because that wasn't going to work out well for either of them. Sooner or later she would get sick of being around someone who was continuously grumpy and sarcastic, and he would be left alone again, after getting emotionally involved with someone. But as it turned out, her feelings for him were a lot more than a crush, and he discovered that he also had some feelings for her too, albeit hidden deep inside him, where he would barely even admit to having them. Although the situation was pleasantly surprising, it still did come as a bit of a shock.

Shock.

The word triggered something in House's brain and he thought about it harder for a second. Suddenly, everything seemed to fall into place.

House dropped the ball on the ground and pushed himself up off the chair, limping over towards the door that connected his office with the conference room, where Cameron was still sitting at the table, engrossed in a text book. She looked up as he entered the room and noticed the look on his face, immediately knowing that House had figured out the puzzle.

House grabbed the medical chart and flicked through the medical history. He obviously couldn't find what he was looking for, so he grabbed the chart and limped towards the door, where he stopped and looked back at Cameron, who was watching him with an amused smile on her face.

"You coming?" he asked.

Cameron quickly pushed back her chair and got up, following House out the door and towards the lifts.

By pure chance, the doors of one of the lifts were opening as House and Cameron arrived, and Cuddy and Wilson started to get off the lift, but stopped when they saw House.

"It's not Legionnaire's, or Rocky Mountain spotted fever." Cuddy said, showing House the sheet of paper with the lab results on it.

"I know." House said, pushing his way into the lift and pressing the button for the next floor up.

"You know?" Cuddy said, her tone one of almost disbelief. "What is it?"

"If I tell you now, it won't sound so dramatic when I explain it." House said knowingly as the doors opened and they four doctors marched down the hall towards Taylor's room.

This time, Lauren Marsden was still in the room, and she stood as the four doctors entered.

House jumped right in with his questions. "Has Taylor had any cuts or grazes or anything recently?" he asked.

Lauren looked surprised. "Of course. He's a ten-year-old boy. He gets cuts and bruises and everything all the time." She stopped and thought for a second. "But there was one he had a while back. He scraped both his knees pretty badly when he fell off his skateboard. They got infected so he had a course of penicillin."

House went over to the bed and flicked the sheets back, exposing Taylor's knees. The wounds were scabbed over, and had almost healed.

"Have you ever heard of streptococcal toxic shock syndrome?" House asked.

Lauren looked confused. "Isn't that associated with tampon usage?" she asked.

"That's toxic shock syndrome. It's caused by staphylococcus aureus, not streptococcus." House explained. "The source of streptococcal toxic shock syndrome is usually through minor wounds or bruises, such as the grazes on his knees. It causes flu-like symptoms, fever, headache, hypotension, rash, respiratory problems and kidney malfunction. It explains every symptom your son is showing."

Lauren breathed a sigh of relief, now that her son's mysterious illness now had a name. "Is it curable?" she asked.

"Completely. We'll put him on a course of oxacillin and keep him topped up with saline to raise his blood pressure, and he will make a full recovery." House said. He indicated to Cuddy, who scribbled the medicines down on Taylor's chart and hooked the bag of antibiotics up to his IV drip.

Lauren sunk back down into her chair, as if the overwhelming feeling of relief had taken away her ability to stand. She ran a shaking hand through her hair and smiled at House and the other three doctors. "Thank you. Thank you so much. I don't know what I can ever do to repay you for saving my son's life."

"That's no problem. We're just doing our jobs." Cuddy said, smiling back at the relieved woman.

---

After saying goodbye to Cameron and House, Wilson and Cuddy made their way into Cuddy's office and flopped down simultaneously on the couch in there.

"Well, that seemed to go well." Cuddy said, sighing a sigh of relief. "It was a good idea after all."

"Yes, and I think that was good for him." Wilson said. "And the kid too, I guess."

"And he's proved that he can diagnose and treat patients without making any ridiculous suggestions or performing multitudes of unnecessary and life-threatening tests." Cuddy said, optimistic that they would get their best doctor back soon. "As much as I hate to say it, I think that this liver disease is the best thing that's happened to House in a long time."

Wilson smiled a knowing smile, which he tried to hide, but Cuddy saw and looked at him curiously. "What are you smiling about?" she asked.

"Let's just say that I don't think it's just the liver disease that's putting House on the right track." He said mysteriously. He watched Cuddy carefully, waiting for her to understand the meaning behind his words.

The expression on her face when she guessed was priceless, her mouth forming a little 'O' of surprise. "You don't mean that House…and Cameron…" she trailed off when she noticed Wilson nodding his affirmation. "Huh." She said, absorbing the information, but not really being able to say anything else.

"I think it's good for them. It's been so long since they've been dancing around this little thing they've got going. It's about time they both took a leap of faith to see what could come of it." Wilson said.

"It's what happens when it falls to pieces that I'm worried about." Cuddy said.

"Maybe it won't." Wilson said optimistically. "She's crazy enough to want to be with him, and he's never going to find anyone else that will put up with him like she does, so they're a match made in heaven as far as I'm concerned."

"I hope you're right for all our sakes." Cuddy said, smiling sadly. "It is nice to see him happy though."

Wilson nodded. "Anyway, I should really get back and take over from Cameron. I think even she needs a break from him every now and then."

Cuddy laughed. "It's good to know that she is human after all."

---

So, sorry it's a little bit short, but this was the best place to end the chapter. And I promise I won't leave it so long between updates next time!

Now I have a question to ask you guys…would you like to read about a relationship between Wilson and Cuddy? The way I'm writing it now, it could go either way. I could continue to have it as a relationship between colleagues, or I could turn it into something more. Although it will be secondary to House and Cameron's storyline and relationship of course! I quite like the dynamics of a Wilson/Cuddy relationship as a secondary storyline, but I'll let you guys decide. Majority vote wins.

-Rhi


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